ADDRESSES  AND  PAPERS 


BY 

ANDREW  S.  DRAPER  LL.B.  LL.D. 

Commissioner  of  Education 


I9I I — I9I2 


STATE  OF  NEW  YORK 

EDUCATION  DEPARTMENT 

ALBANY 


LBS75 
JDt<\?3 


CONTENTS 

Page 

All  People  and  all  Education 9 

Memorial  Day  and  World  Peace •. . . . .  21 

Lincoln  in  his  Writings 37 

The  Evolution  of  Education  in  the  United  States 47 

The  Jewels  of  the  Nation 73 

Criticisms  of  Education  Chapter  in  Proposed  New  York 

City  Charter 85 

Remarks    at    the    Inauguration    of    Chancellor    Elmer 

Ellsworth  Brown 95 

What  is  Expected  of  District  Superintendents 101 

No  Mummified  History  in  New  York  Schools 115 

The  Necessary  Basis  of  the  Teacher's  Tenure 125 

Weaknesses  in  American  Universities 139 

Introduction  to  Eighth  Annual  Report  of  New  York 

State  Education  Department 157 

The  Story  of  the  Erection  of  the  Education  Building.  .  167 

The  Normal  Progress  of  the  United  States 203 

Rural  Supervision  in  New  York 211 

City  Schools  Entitled  to  a  Government  of  Their  Own.  .  219 

Ancient  versus  Modern  Learning  in  Free  Schools 227 

The  Place  of  Saratoga  in  the  Revolutionary  War 237 

Education  Building  —  Dedicatory  Address 257 

D34-My  12-3500  (7-14757) 


246756 


ALL  PEOPLE  AND  ALL  EDUCATION 


ALL  PEOPLE  AND  ALL  EDUCATION1 

It  is  a  genuine  satisfaction  to  participate  in  your  celebration  of 
the  accomplishments  of  the  first  twenty-five  years  in  the  life  of 
this  young  university.  As  universities  go,  Temple  University  is 
yet  very  young.  I  have  wandered  about  the  halls  of  universities 
that  have  been  six  hundred  or  eight  hundred  years  in  the  building. 
The  oldest  of  our  American  universities  is  looking  forward  to  its 
three  hundredth  anniversary.  It  certainly  takes  time  to  develop  a 
great  university,  but  we  in  America  have  a  way  of  building  uni- 
versities more  rapidly  than  they  do  in  other  lands  or  than  they 
used  to  do  in  this  country.  That  fact  finds  splendid  illustration  in 
the  growth  of  this  institution.  Our  celebration  will  not  recall  his- 
tory and  tradition  very  much ;  it  will  not  be  very  boastful  of  gray- 
headed  "  old  grads  "  gone  to  the  United  States  Senate  or  Supreme 
Court;  it  will  not  be  a  solemn  festival  where  old  men  have  all  the 
good  seats  and  indulge  in  reminiscences;  but  it  will  be  a  sort  of 
hilarious  expression  of  the  energy,  the  accomplishments,  the  hopes, 
and  the  determination  of  youth.  While  I  am  no  longer  a  young 
man  as  years  go,  I  am  bound  to  say  that  this  kind  of  a  celebration 
is  not  without  exceedingly  attractive  features. 

Temple  University  is  not  only  young;  it  is  democratic.  It  is  not 
exclusive  socially  or  educationally.  It  gives  warm  welcome  to  all 
who  can  do  its  work.  It  recognizes  the  fact  that  work  done  gives 
the  best  promise  of  the  power  to  do,  and  it  therefore  regards 
records  and  certificates;  but  it  does  not  believe,  or  even  half-way 
believe,  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  are  to  be  classified 
and  one  class  educated  and  another  not;  and  it  does  not  believe, 
or  even  half-way  believe,  that  all  education  worth  the  name  is 
ancient  and  literary,  and  that  all  education  that  is  modern  or  indus- 
trial is  hardly  worth  the  having.  On  the  contrary,  it  believes  that 
every  one  should  have  his  chance;  that  the  door  of  opportunity 
should  open  to  the  earnest  purpose  and  to  the  power  to  do;  and 
that  the  education  which  enters  into  life  and  makes  life  better 
worth  the  living  is  the  education  that  is  of  the  most  worth  and 
that  most  surely  concerns  American  universities. 

These  two  facts,  the  youth  and  the  democracy  of  this  institu- 

1  Abstract  of  address  given  at  the  silver  anniversary  and  founder's  day 
exercises  of  Temple  University,  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  on  February  ir,  191 1. 

11 


12 

tion,  give  the  stranger  within  your  gates  the  theme  for  his  observa- 
tions upon  your  silver  anniversary. 

It  is  impossible,  and  it  ought  to  be  impossible,  that  wealth  shall 
be  evenly  distributed,  or  at  least  shall  long  remain  evenly  dis- 
tributed, among  men  and  women.  Social  and  industrial  communi- 
ties with  a  common  treasury  in  which  all  the  members  have  equal 
rights  are  chimerical  and  transitory  because  unjust.  The  personal 
equation  is  a  rightful  factor  in  determining  individual  progress  and 
human  situations.  That  is  true  of  this  country  above  any  other 
country,  because  here  ambitions  are  always  rife,  opportunities  are 
always  open,  and  things  are  always  moving,  while  in  other  countries 
the  individual  status  is  very  fixed,  opportunities  are  very  infre- 
quent, and  the  affairs  of  the  people  move  slowly  and  laboriously. 
Of  course  the  results  are  in  both  directions.  There  are  not  many 
of  us  who  have  reached  middle  life  or  gone  beyond  it,  who  have 
not  seen  fortunes  disappear  and  names  lose  their  significance,  and 
who  have  not  also  seen  competencies  accumulated  and  new  names 
made  great.  It  is  the  result  of  our  natural  physical  resources, 
our  mingling  of  different  nationalities,  our  universal  ambitions,  our 
religious  toleration,  our  political  institutions,  and  our  continued 
activity.  It  is  so  for  the  first  time  in  human  history,  and  it  is  right. 
Genius,  gifts,  studiousness,  learning,  craftsmanship,  assiduity, 
probity,  and  prudence  are  entitled  not  only  to  their  accumulations 
but  also  to  have  their  accumulations  protected.  Incapacity  and 
shiftlessness  are  bound  to  suffer  their  inevitable  consequences.  But 
in  this  country  every  one  must  have  his  chance  and  then  he  must 
take  the  consequences.  It  is  good  American  doctrine  that  there 
shall  be  equality  of  legal  right,  that  the  common  power  shall  not 
help  one  and  hinder  another,  and  that  upon  that  basis  every  one 
must  accept  the  consequences  and  keep  the  peace. 

This  relates  to  education  as  to  any  other  kind  of  riches ;  and  it 
has  been  and  is  to  be  more  of  a  matter  to  work  out  this  principle 
as  to  education  in  America  than  most  people  are  accustomed  to 
think. 

Temple  University  is  not  only  a  new  and  possibly  a  somewhat 
unique  university,  but  it  is  in  a  new  and  somewhat  unique  country. 
In  situation  and  relations  and  purposes  and  institutions  this  country 
is  to  be  distinguished  from  all  other  countries.  It  may  not  in  all 
things  be  better  than  all  other  countries,  but  it  is  certainly  in  very 
many  things  very  different  from  any  other  country,  and  of  course 
we  believe  that  it  averages  a  little  better  than  any  other. 


13 

All  other  countries  have  upper  and  nether  classes.  We  inherited 
a  great  deal  from  the  countries  from  which  we  came,  but  we 
refused  to  accept  the  class  distinctions.  We  inherited  our  thinking 
about  education  and  the  plan  and  scope  of  our  higher  institutions 
of  learning  from  other  countries,  and  as  these  were  based  upon 
class  distinctions  we  have  had  difficulty  in  reorganizing  and  recon- 
structing them  so  as  to  get  rid  of  the  old  basis  and  readjust  them 
to  democratic  rather  than  exclusive  or  autocratic  foundations. 

All  the  early  American  colleges  were  exclusive.  Their  view  of 
educational  values  was  exceedingly  narrow.  They  held  that  there 
was  no  education  which  was  not  classical,  metaphysical,  dogmatic. 
Indeed,  they  were  so  dogmatic  that  they  would  now  be  held  to  be 
irreligious.  Think,  for  example,  of  a  president  of  Yale  College 
writing  in  his  diary  "  Colonel  Ethan  Allen  has  died  and  gone  to 
hell  this  day."  Fortunately  for  both  of  them  the  president  delayed 
his  entry  of  judgment  until  Ethan  Allen  was  dead.  It  needs 
courage  to  appeal  from  the  judgment  of  a  college  president,  but  I 
guess  an  appeal  would  lie  from  that  to  the  throne  of  the  Almighty. 
Righteous  as  he  and  his  compeers  were,  they  had  much  to  learn. 
They  needed  to  learn  not  only  moderation  of  judgment,  but  also 
that  the  sciences  were  to  unlock  God's  truths  in  conformity  with 
human  intelligence  and  in  response  to  human  research,  and  that 
there  was  education,  and  no  conflict  with  true  religion,  in  all  that. 
And  they  needed  to  learn,  what  their  day  could  not  reveal  to  them, 
that  education  may  be  as  broad  as  mankind  and  as  the  world  of 
mankind,  and  relates  to  all  human  lives,  to  all  planes  of  life,  and 
to  all  that  can  make  life  in  the  world  better  worth  the  living,  to 
the  end  that  life  in  the  hereafter  may  be  better  worth  the  having. 
Indeed  they  needed  to  have,  what  the  early  conditions  necessarily 
denied  them,  the  lights  which  the  progress  of  our  social  and  indus- 
trial life  under  democratic  institutions  has  thrown  upon  the  possi- 
bilities and  therefore  the  responsibilities  of  the  higher  learning. 

If  the  early  colleges  were  exclusive,  so  were  the  early  secondary 
schools.  The  early  "  academies  "  were  the  offshoots  of  the  early 
colleges  and  in  scope  and  spirit  were  like  them.  They  were  ordi- 
narily initiated  and  always  fostered  by  the  colleges,  that  they  might 
be  feeders  for  them.  A  given  academy  guided  such  of  its  students 
as  were  going  to  college  to  a  given  college.  To  be  sure,  all  the 
students  of  the  academy  did  not  go  to  college :  often  the  more 
well-to-do  sent  their  children  to  the  academy  which  was  convenient 
in  order  better  to  prepare  them  for  life,  when  they  had  no  thought 


14 

of  their  going  to  college.  But  whatever  became  of  the  student, 
his  work  in  the  academy  had  to  be  narrowed  by  the  thinking  of 
the  professors  in  the  college  to  which  he  was  expected  to  go  if 
he  were  going  to  college  at  all.  And  as  the  thinking  of  the  pro- 
fessors in  all  the  colleges  was  within  arbitrary  limits  and  much  the 
same,  the  offerings  of  the  academies  were  very  few  and  much 
alike. 

This  was  the  survival,  of  course,  of  the  thinking  and  of  the 
educational  plans  and  institutions  of  Europe,  and  essentially  of 
the  British  Isles.  It  was  precisely  what  was  to  have  been  expected. 
There  has  been  much  said  about  the  educational  purposes  and 
doings  of  the  early  American  settlers,  and  much  that  has  been  said 
has  been  without  information  about  the  facts.  When  Englishmen 
first  settled  in  America  there  were  higher  and  lower  classes  in 
England,  as  there  are  today.  Those  Englishmen  did  not  cease  to 
be  Englishmen,  and  had  no  thought  of  it,  when  they  came  to 
America.  They  brought  with  them  all  their  preconceived  notions, 
and  habits  of  mind,  and  well-settled  manner  of  life,  and  established 
arrangements  for  training  their  young.  They  did  not  change  these 
in  any  essential  way  for  a  century,  nor  in  any  large  way  for  two 
centuries.  At  Plymouth,  through  the  Pilgrim  Church,  they  un- 
doubtedly taught  their  children  to  read  a  little  and  to  write  their 
names,  according  to  the  English  custom,  to  make  sure  that  they 
could  read  the  Bible  and  so  gain  salvation,  but  there  is  no  proof 
whatever  of  the  existence  of  an  independent  school  of  any  kind 
in  the  Plymouth  colony  for  half  a  century  after  the  year  so  great 
in  American  history,  1620.  At  Massachusetts  Bay  the  first  schools 
were  a  little  college,  now  our  oldest  and  one  of  our  greatest  uni- 
versities, and  a  preparatory  school  for  it.  As  the  settlements  grew 
in  size  and  in  numbers  and  moved  back  from  the  coast,  other 
fitting  schools  were  established.  There  were  "  classes  "  then  and 
for  generations  afterward  in  Massachusetts,  just  as  there  were  in 
England,  and  what  was  done  in  the  way  of  schools  was  done  by 
the  upper  class,  and  related  essentially  to  the  training  of  their 
children  for  service  in  the  state  and  the  church,  which  were  united 
in  one.  Only  the  barest  elements  of  learning  were  accorded  to  the 
children  of  the  multitude,  and  thought  of  training  such  for  the 
higher  things  of  life  was  as  much  beyond  the  possibility  of  aristo- 
cratic contemplation  in  that  day  as  the  idea  of  going  back  to  the 
educational  plan  of  that  day  would  be  beyond  the  outposts  of  our 
understanding  now. 


is 

It  must  be  said  that  this  was  not  wholly  or  absolutely  true  in 
ail  parts  of  the  country,  for  Holland  had  broken  the  back  of  auto- 
cratic power  and  celebrated  her  victories  by  establishing  elementary 
schools  for  the  masses  as  well  as  universities  for  the  few,  and  the 
Dutchmen  who  came  to  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  brought  their 
ways  of  thinking  with  them.  In  their  poverty  they  clad  set  up  ele- 
mentary schools,  the  first  in  America,  although  they  were  unable 
to  establish  colleges.  But  fortunately,  as  we  now  believe,  the 
English  power  was  to  prevail  over  all  the  other  powers  that  were 
seeking  to  dominate  America,  and  with  the  prevalence  of  the 
English  power  there  had  to  come,  and  happily,  as  the  sequel  has 
proved,  the  English  plan  of  education. 

As  there  is  better  result  when  we  take  high  ideals,  even  though 
narrow  ones,  and  liberalize  them,  and  put  under  them  foundations 
which  can  carry  them,  and  build  stairs  by  which  all  people  may 
get  up  to  them,  than  when  we  are  without  high  ideals  altogether, 
it  is  well  that  the  English  power  and  plan  of  education  came  to 
prevail  everywhere  in  America.  But  it  must  be  distinctly  said  that 
•that  is  not  because  it  was  then  or  is  now  such  a  good  plan  in  itself, 
but  because  it  was  and  is  a  good  plan  for  democracy  to  make 
better  And  that  is  precisely  what  we  have  been  doing;  and  it  is 
what  the  older  nations,  not  excepting  the  Mother  Country  herself, 
because  of  the  persistence  of  the  old  order  of  things  and  because 
of  the  lack  or  the  slow  progress  of  democracy,  have  been  unable 
to  do  at  all,  or  at  least  with  anything  like  the  celerity  and  force- 
fulness  that  have  marked  the  progress  of  education  in  the  United 
States. 

Of  course  there  has  been  notable  educational  progress  in  all 
countries  worth  mentioning  since  the  colonial  days  in  America. 
The  character  and  the  extent  of  it  have  depended  upon  the  ambition 
and  independence,  the  intellectual  agencies  and  the  political  insti- 
tutions of  the  people.  It  has  often  been  energized  by  commerce 
and  accelerated  by  war.  But  it  has  as  commonly  been  held  back 
by  religious  intolerance,  and  it  has  uniformly  been  blocked  by 
the  self-interest  and  obstinacy  of  caste.  In  Britain,  France, 
Switzerland,  Holland,  the  German  Empire,  and  the  Scandinavian 
•countries,  there  are  excellent  primary  schools  and  noble  universi- 
ties. We  may  now  almost  say  that  of  Italy.  We  'may  certainly 
say  it  of  Japan,  for  constitutionalism  has  made  real  progress  there, 
and  the  keel  of  the  educational  system  was  laid,  the  decks  were 
built,  and  the  spars  were  set  up  by  American  teachers.     If  the 


i6 

whole  truth  were  told,  the  elementary  schools  of  the  leading 
countries  of  Europe  are  as  universal  as  the  elementary  schools  of 
the  United  States,  and  are  even  more  efficient  in  teaching  the 
elements  of  knowledge.  The  reason  is  that  the  management  of  the 
system  is  more  arbitrary;  attendance  is  universal  and  regular; 
theorists  and  children  are  not  allowed  to  control  the  schools ;  there 
is  not  so  much  senseless  exploitation  of  pedagogy  and  psychology 
in  the  schools;  there  are  not  so  many  conventions,  and  there  is  a 
charming  and  restful  freedom  from  unprofitable  disputation  by 
superintendents  and  teachers  of  primary  schools  over  apparently 
unsolvable  matters  which  belong  in  the  universities  if  they  belong 
anywhere.  The  schools  have  definite  work  to  do  and  they  do  it; 
and  the  result  is  that  the  percentage  of  illiteracy  is  negligible  and 
all  the  people  have  a  good  firm  grasp  upon  the  elements  of  knowl- 
edge which  are  vital  to  comfortable  subsistence  in  primitive  life. 
And  that  is  more  than  is  true  of  all  the  people  in  the  United  States. 

All  these  leading  nations  over  the  seas  have  ancient  and  splendid 
universities.  By  far  the  greater  part  of  those  universities  are 
held  back  by  old  traditions  and  arbitrary  forms.  But  that  is  by 
no  means  the  worst  of  it  from  the  American  point  of  view.  There 
is  no  connection  between  them  and  the  primary  schools.  Of 
course  there  are  occasional  exceptions;  local  history  may  supply 
the  reasons  for  an  invasion  of  the  general  plan  in  a  circumscribed 
region  of  country,  and  exceptional  genius  may  have  broken 
through  the  wall  of  caste  here  and  there;  but  the  overwhelming 
fact  is  that  there  is  no  open  road  in  Europe  from  the  elementary 
schools  to  the  universities.  The  people  who  control  the  educational 
policies  of  the  Old  World  do  not  intend  that  there  shall  be  one. 
As  the  primary  schools  are  a  thing  unto  themselves,  so  are  the  uni- 
versities. As  the  primary  schools  are  efficient  for  the  nether  class 
of  people,  the  universities  are  efficient  for  the  upper  class.  If 
there  must  be  an  arbitrary  wall  between  classes  of  people  who  are 
all  alike  vital  to  the  power,  the  progress,  and  the  happiness  of  a 
nation,  the  arrangement  is  probably  as  good  as  any  that  could  be 
set  up.  But  we  do  not  believe  in  any  such  arbitrary  division  among 
the  people,  and  we  know  that  any  such  educational  arrangement 
is  not  only  unjust  to  the  masses  but  also  that  it  keeps  from  the 
universities  the  very  youths  who  alone  can  save  them  from  losing 
their  virility  and  going  to  seed. 

And  so  the  people  of  the  United  States  have  been  setting  up  a 
better  scheme  of  education,  and  it  may  be  said  that  they  have 


17 

arrived  at  it  in  a  rather  singular  and  unexpected  way.  It  would 
have  been  as  impossible  to  convince  the  early  American  colleges, 
as  it  would  their  English  prototypes,  of  any  fundamental  errors 
in  their  scheme.  But  democracy  did  its  work  so  perfectly  that  in 
time  even  the  old  line  colleges  had  to  remove  their  mortar  boards 
to  it. 

The  history  of  elementary  and  common  schools  in  the  American 
colonies  is  a  barren  one.     Not  until  the  old  bell  at  Independence 
Hall  in  this  city  clanged  out  the  glad  proclamation  of  independence 
of  royal  rule,  and  the  colonists  had  made  their  Declaration  good 
in  successful  battle,  did  there  begin  to  develop  anything  like  a  uni- 
versal system  of  elementary  schools  in  America.     The  royal  gov- 
ernment of  England  had  a  hard  enough  time  in  asserting  its  rule 
over  other  royal  governments  in  the  wilds  of  America,  and  after 
it  had  effected  that,  it  did  even  less  for  the  education  of  the  plain 
people  in  the  colonies  than  it  did  for  its  plain  people  at  home,  and 
that  was  little  enough.    But  for  half  a  century  after  independence 
we  were  setting  up  the  English  educational  plan  which  embraced 
classical  colleges,  with  academic  fitting  schools  for  the  well-to-do 
and  elementary  schools  for  the  farmers  and  the  mechanics.     By 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  common  elementary  school 
had  become  universal  and  was  ready  for  a  new  evolution.     The 
wall  was  being  lowered.    The  new  evolution  was  the  common  high 
school.     There  was  a  great  fight  over  it,  and  notably  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, but  it  came.     It  came  so  generally  and  so  strongly  that  it 
overwhelmed  most  of  the  academies  and  gave  the  colleges  a  seri- 
ous jolt.     Here  was  the  bridge  over  which  the  children  of  the 
common  people  could  come  to  the  very  doors  of  the  higher  insti- 
tutions.   Of  course  those  doors  opened  for  them.    An  ancient  edu- 
cational system  and  a  modern  educational  movement  were   face 
to  face  and  would  have  to  adjust  themselves  to  each  other  or  the 
next  evolution  of  the  new  educational  impulse  would  overwhelm 
the  college  itself.    The  effort  to  adjust  the  college  was  sincere  and 
partially  successful,  perhaps  as  successful  as  was  well,  but  it  was 
difficult  of  attainment  and  the  further  manifestation  of  democracy 
in  education  came  in  a  little  time  and  with  transcendent  conse- 
quences.    That  further  manifestation  was  in  democratic  universi- 
ties, broader  in  their  foundations  and  more  influential  in  the  affairs 
of  the  nation  than  any  higher  institutions  of  learning  that  America, 
or  even  the  world,  had  seen  before. 

Apart   from   the   enlargement   of    educational  opportunity,   the 


iS 

holding  out  of  the  equal  chance  to  the  multitude,  the  influence  of 
it  all  upon  the  older  colleges  themselves,  has  been  very  decisive, 
and  the  growth  of  distinctly  democratic  universities  in  the  United 
States  is  an  evolution  of  the  very  first  moment  in  world  education. 
The  old-time  colleges,  developed  since  our  Civil  War  into  great 
universities,  have  willingly  testified  of  the  satisfactory  preparation 
of  students  for  their  college  work  by  the  public  high  schools,  and 
of  the  democratic  influence  of  students  so  prepared  upon  the  uni- 
versities themselves.  And  no  one  can  fail  to  see  that  the  depend- 
ence of  these  older  institutions  upon  students  trained  in  the  high 
schools  is  so  great  that  the  offerings,  as  well  as  the  atmosphere  and 
spirit,  of  even  conservative  universities  have  had  to  bend  to  new 
ways  of  thinking  and  to  the  interests  of  a  wider  constituency  than 
they  have  ever  had  before. 

But  of  more  consequence  to  American  education  than  the  influ- 
ence of  this  democratic  advance  upon  universities  already  estab- 
lished, is  the  erection  of  great  universities  as  a  constituent  part  of 
the  public  school  system,  offering  the  best  instruction  in  every 
study,  in  all  the  newer  states  of  the  Union,  and  directly  under  the 
support  and  management  of  the  people  themselves.  They  are  sup- 
ported by  the  states  with  absolute  enthusiasm  and  many  of  them 
have  in  the  last  quarter  century  come  to  be  numbered  not  only 
among  the  largest  but  among  the  greatest  of  American  universi- 
ties. That  of  course  means  that  they  have  come  to  rank  well  upon 
old-line  subjects  —  that  is,  upon  classical,  literary,  philosophical, 
and  purely  scientific  branches  —  with  universities  anywhere  in  the 
world.  But  it  may  be  justly  added  that  in  addition  to  this  they 
have  gone  outside  of  and  beyond  the  older  institutions  in  lines  of 
work  which  bear  upon  the  social  and  industrial  life  of  the  people, 
and  have  to  do  with  the  political  sciences  and  the  administration  of 
states  and  municipalities  in  a  measure  that  fully  justifies  them  to 
all  the  people.  And,  moreover,  the  absence  of  sectarian  control 
has  made  for  freedom  of  discussion,  without  cant,  in  religious 
matters,  which  is  practically  unprecedented  in  higher  education. 
By  reason  of  it  all  they  have  in  recent  years  grown  in  numbers  of 
teachers  and  of  students,  in  property,  in  offerings,  and  in  telling 
influence,  far  more  rapidly  than  the  endowed  universities  of  the 
country. 

The  Federal  Bureau  of  Education  has  recently  reported  that 
there  are  eighty-one  of  these  tax-supported  universities  and  other 
institutions  of  higher  education  wholly  or  partially  supported  by 


i9 

the  state,  having  7960  teachers  in  their  faculties  and  84,555  stu_ 
dents  in  attendance.  Each  of  the  great  states  in  the  north  central 
section  of  the  Union  has  a  great  public  university  with  from  three 
to  six  thousand  students  who  find  whatever  training  they  may 
wish  and,  speaking  generally,  of  as  high  quality  as  is  provided  in 
any  institution  of  the  country.  Last  Saturday  night  graduates  of 
the  State  University  of  Michigan  banqueted  in  the  city  of  New 
York.  A  special  train  brought  a  throng  from  Michigan  to  this 
function.  At  the  board  sat  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States,  four  members  of  the  National  Senate,  and 
twenty-four  members  of  the  National  House  of  Representatives, 
besides  great  numbers  of  other  men  distinguished  in  public  life 
and  in  the  professional,  commercial,  and  industrial  life  of  Michi- 
gan and  of  the  country.  In  a  note  to  this  company  my  long-time 
friend,  Dr  James  B.  Angell,  former  president  of  the  university,  said : 

The  university  is  not  rich  in  lands,  or  in  buildings,  or  in 
bonds;  but  in  the  talent,  character  and  achievements  of  her 
thirty  thousand  sons  and  daughters  now  living  she  is  rich 
beyond  computation. 

The  graduates  of  Michigan  have  come  of  a  virile  stock, 
from  homes  where  self-denial  was  practised  that  they  might 
receive  their  education.  They  brought  habits  of  industry, 
a  heroic  determination  to  prepare  themselves  for  useful 
careers  and  a  high  purpose  to  make  their  way  honorably  over 
or  through  all  obstacles. 

This  is  our  chief  endowment  —  men  and  women  scattered  all 
over  this  land  and  over  foreign  lands  who  have  brought  things 
to  pass,  and  have  been  a  great  power  in  the  world.  They  make 
the  name  of  Michigan  respected  everywhere. 

This  illustrates  much.  What  Michigan  is  doing  for  the  higher 
learning,  she  is  of  course  doing  for  all  learning,  because  all  grades 
of  learning  are  interdependent.  And  what  Michigan  is  doing  to 
help  all  people  to  all  learning,  all  the  other  states  beyond  the  Alle- 
gheny mountains  are  doing  in  a  large  and  far-seeing  way.  The 
territory  of  Michigan,  with  that  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and 
Wisconsin,  was  dedicated  to  freedom,  to  religion,  and  to  education 
by  the  great  ordinance  of  1787,  and  all  of  them  have  not  only 
kept  the  pact  but  have  spread  the  same  faith  to  the  Pacific 
coast.  While  democracy  was  really  getting  upon  its  feet,  when 
the  western  states  were  taking  form  and  it  was  therefore  easier  to 
erect  higher  institutions  of  learning  upon  new  and  democratic  lines 
in  those  states  than  in  the  older  ones,  it  must  be  said  that  the 


20 

endowed  universities  have  bent  to  the  new  influences  with  remark- 
able facility,  and  some  of  the  older  state  governments  have  re- 
sponded to  the  democratic  advance  in  rather  thoroughgoing  ways. 
Out  of  it  all  there  has  developed  an  educational  organization 
in  the  United  States  that,  as  already  observed,  may  not  be  as  com- 
pletely efficient  in  its  every  part  as  some  of  the  corresponding  parts 
in  some  of  the  systems  in  some  other  countries  may  be,  but  our 
system  surely  shows  more  comprehensiveness,  universality  and 
solidarity  than  any  other  national  system  of  education  in  the 
world.  All  the  people  are  to  have  equal  educational  opportunity 
in  America,  and  the  highest  learning  of  the  world  is  to  be  at  the 
service  of  every  culturing,  professional,  scientific,  commercial  and 
industrial  interest  of  all  the  people. 

As  I  understand  it,  Temple  University  is  in  a  special  sense  a 
people's  university.  While  under  peculiar  obligations  to  a  founder 
who  gave  himself  and  devoted  what  he  could  to  it,  it  has  not  had 
the  advantage  of  what  have  now  come  to  be  known  as  princely 
gifts  in  education.  Surely  you  have  had  reason  to  know  that  you 
have  not  been  a  tax-supported  university.  But  you  have  appealed 
to  the  masses  and  grown  upon  your  humble  and  needful  work. 
You  have  not  been  exclusive:  you  have  held  out  the  helping  hand 
to  all  who  were  ambitious  and  assiduous  and  yet  for  one  reason 
or  another  might  not  be  able  to  make  their  education  their  only 
business,  or  were  not  able  to  fit  into,  and  perhaps  were  not  dis- 
posed to  fit  into,  the  hard  and  fast  grooves  of  established  institu- 
tions. If  that  has  been  the  idea,'  you  have  been  richly  entitled  to 
the  prosperity  that  has  attended  you. 

Of  course  it  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  say  that  all  universities 
must  observe  the  standards  which  come  to  be  fixed  by  the  educa- 
tional sense  and  experience  of  the  country.  Doing  that,  you  will 
prove  your  worth  and  you  will  realize  with  the  succeeding  years, 
more  and  more,  that,  while  it  may  not  be  best  that  all  the  people 
of  the  country  shall  go  to  college,  provision  must  be  made  for  all 
who  can  do  college  work  and  who  knock  upon  the  college  door. 
Since  New  York  City  has  become  a  way  station  on  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Railroad,  it  is  hardly  within  the  proprieties  for  a  New 
Yorker  to  tender  advice  to  the  magnificent  municipality  of  Phila- 
delphia or  the  imperial  commonwealth  of  Pennsylvania,  but  it  is 
within  a  freeman's  right  to  say  that,  between  them,  they  would 
honor  themselves  by  providing  you  money  which  would  help  you 
to  make  such  provision  yet  more  completely,  for  all  who  would 
like  to  enter  one  of  your  doors. 


MEMORIAL  DAY  AND  WORLD   PEACE 


MEMORIAL  DAY  AND  WORLD  PEACE  1 

American  travelers  are  struck  by  the  display  of  old  battle  flags 
and  tablets  in  memory  of  soldier  heroes,  in  the  churches  of  Europe. 
Many  a  Presbyterian  pilgrim  to  the  early  shrines  of  his  church 
will  recall  the  brilliant  colors  and  the  glowing  records  of  Highland 
regiments  in  the  numerous  panels  of  the  grand  old  cathedral  of 
the  established  Presbyterian  church  of  Scotland,  standing  over 
against  the  ancient  necropolis  in  Glasgow.  That  is  a  rather 
natural  intertwining  of  patriotism  and  Presbyterianism  where 
they  are  much  the  same.  But  the  custom  is  usual  and  logical  in 
all  countries  where  the  political  state  and  a  dominant  church  are 
interdependent. 

The  bright  colors,  the  testimony  to  splendid  heroisms,  the  con- 
tinual stirring  of  patriotic  emotions,  are  both  attractive  and  stimu- 
lating. But  after  a  little,  as  the  intelligent  American  reflects  upon 
it,  there  is  something  about  it  that  is  not  completely  grateful  to 
him.  He  recalls  that  these  displays  are  evidence  of  the  aid  and 
special  favor  of  government  to  a  particular  congregation  or  a 
particular  denomination.  He  reasons  that  when  a  political  state 
favors  a  particular  church  it  demands  something  in  return.  He 
knows  that  congregations  and  whole  denominations  have  protested 
against  the  policy  for  hundreds  of  years  and  grown  strong  through 
their  protesting.  He  knows  that  the  institutions  of  his  country 
have  grown  out  of  that  protest.  He  knows  that  that  protest  is 
growing  more  vehement  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  He  sees  that 
religion  does  not  find  its  mainspring  in  political  power;  that 
churches  may  better  be  the  independent  guides  and,  if  need  be, 
the  free  critics  of  government,  and  neither  the  suppliants  nor 
the  instruments  of  parliaments  and  kings.  He  believes  that 
religion  is  more  likely  to  be  undenled  and  the  state  strong  where 
the  church  is  free  from  political  entanglements  and  the  state  is 
independent  of  sectarian  domination.  His  reading  has  told  him 
that  free  churches  are  more  the  cause  than  they  are  the  product 
of  free  states,  and  that  free  churches  give  a  better  support  than 
do  state  churches  to  states  that  have  the  best  right  to  be.  He 
knows  that  the  flag  of  his  country  deserves  adoration  and  he  adores 


1  Address  at  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  Albany,  on  Sunday,  May  28, 
1911. 

23 


24 

it,  but  he  may  question  whether  even  the  flag  stands  for  more 
than  the  church  stands  for,  and  he  even  disputes  the  prominence 
and  significance  of  the  flag  that  he  adores,  in  the  place  and  the 
hour  set  apart  for  the  worship  of  his  God.  Anyway,  he  con- 
cludes with  all  confidence  that  a  church  must  reject  any  theory 
and  repel  any  usage  which  does  not  magnify  and  promote  the 
blessings  of  peace,  and  does  not  deplore  the  necessity  and  lessen 
the  possibility  of  war.  And  he  thinks  of  his  own  church  and  his 
own  flag  with  yet  deeper  satisfaction  than  he  had  before. 

It  is  now  full  fifty  years  since  the  outbreak  of  the  awful  war 
which  abolished  slavery  at  a  cost  of  men  and  means  and  heart- 
aches beyond  all  calculation.  The  day  set  apart  by  the  laws  of 
the  northern  states  for  paying  respect  to  the  memories  of  the 
heroic  dead  of  the  Union  armies  in  that  war  is  again  at  hand. 
The  churches  have  no  misgivings  about  the  propriety  of  their 
participating  in  the  national  observance.  Grateful  to  the  noble 
flag  that  protects  their  independence,  they  make  a  free  will  offer- 
ing to  the  memories  of  the  men  who  gave  their  lives  to  ennoble 
it.  The  old  sectional  bitterness  has  almost  passed  away.  A 
month  ago  the  southern  states  observed  a  similar  day  in  honor 
of  the  heroic  dead  of  the  Confederate  armies.  But  for  the  dif- 
ference of  the  seasons  north  and  south,  the  whole  country  would 
doubtless  observe  the  same  day,  "  with  malice  towards  none,  with 
charity  for  all."  There  is  little  dissent  now,  in  any  responsible 
quarter,  from  the  moral  and  legal  propositions  of  Lincoln  upon 
which  the  war  was  fought  and  the  victory  won;  that  war  was  not 
justified  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  states  where  it  was  by  authority 
of  law;  that  a  house  divided  against  itself  could  not  stand,  and 
that  the  nation  would  inevitably  become  wholly  slave  or  wholly 
free;  that  the  slave  system  was  a  moral  evil  and  could  not  be 
permitted  to  enter  territory  that  was  free;  that  the  Union  could 
not  be  severed  by  the  action  of  individual  states,  or  in  any  way 
except  by  amendment  of  the  Federal  Constitution  in  the  way 
provided  therein ;  that  he  would  not  "  strain  the  bonds  of  affec- 
tion "  and  would  not  precipitate  war,  but  that  the  solemn  business 
of  the  President,  under  the  "  oath  he  had  registered  in  Heaven," 
was  to  "  save  the  Union  "  and  execute  the  laws  in  all  parts  of  the 
land.  And,  whether  there  is  any  dissent  from  these  propositions 
or  not,  there  is  universal  acclaim  that  the  Union  was  saved,  uni- 
versal recognition  of  the  conscientious  sincerity  and  splendid  hero- 
isms   of   both   the   contending   armies,   universal   respect    for   the 


25 

graves  of  all  the  dead,  universal  acceptance  of  the  conclusions 
which  apparently  could  be  reached  by  the  sword  alone. 

The  fiftieth  anniversary  year  witnesses  a  movement  marked  by 
great  earnestness  as  well  as  great  sagacity  and  learning,  supported 
by  large  influence  and  liberal  means,  and  aided  by  the  leading  and 
most  progressive  governments  of  the  world,  for  the  avoidance  of 
war  through  the  submission  of  disputes  to  courts  where  the  prin- 
ciples of  justice  may  be  applied  to  facts  which  have  been  ascer- 
tained with  deliberation  and  scientific  exactness.  If  the  courts 
find  that  the  laws  have  not  anticipated  such  a  situation  as  the 
ascertained  facts  disclose,  then  they  are  expected  to  lay  down  new 
laws  which  will  assure  the  just  rights  of  men  and  of  nations  and 
at  the  same  time  give  civilization  the  stability  and  the  opportunity 
to  uplift  itself  and  go  forward.  Surely  there  is  no  place  more 
fitting  than  this  church,  and  no  time  more  appropriate  than  this 
hour,  for  calling  the  sacred  memories  of  the  soldier  dead  to  the 
support  of  a  world  movement  to  promote  justice  and  peace.  And 
surely  there  is  no  more  reverent  way  for  honoring  those  who  died 
for  freedom  and  the  flag  than  by  associating  their  memories  with 
the  demand  that  right  rather  than  mere  power  shall  prevail,  that 
liberty  shall  go  unhampered  until  it  reaches  the  limitations  of  the 
gospel  and  the  law,  and  that  the  limitations  shall  be  determined 
quietly  in  the  light  of  experience  and  reason,  and  without  recourse 
to  the  warfare  which  is  "  the  last  argument  of  kings." 

When  the  Union  was  assailed,  the  great  heart  of  New  York 
throbbed  strong  and  true.  With  all  her  strength  of  position,  of 
numbers,  and  of  resources,  she  responded  promptly ;  and  she  kept 
abreast  of  all  the  other  states  to  the  very  end.  She  sent  four 
hundred  thousand  men,  one  in  five  of  her  male  population,  to  the 
army.  There  were  five  hundred  thousand  different  enlistments. 
One  soldier  in  every  five  who  sustained  the  nation  came  from  the 
Empire  State.  It  is  not  meant  that  she  was  more  patriotic  than 
other  states,  but  she  had  the  men  and  the  money  and  the  position 
and  the  patriotism  which  gave  her  the  right  of  the  line  in  the  forces 
that  saved  the  Union. 

Albany  has  always  been  a  point  of  the  first  moment  in  the 
military  view.  In  the  settlement  days  this  city  was  the  center  of 
both  trade  and  warfare  with  the  Indians.  All  through  the  long, 
bloody  century  which  was  required  to  settle  the  questions  whether 
white  civilization  or  red  savagery,  whether  English  or  French  civ- 
ilization, and  whether  rronarchial  or  democratic  government,  were 


26 

to  prevail  in  America,  Albany  was  the  point  of  very  first  strategic 
importance.  All  the  water  courses,  all  the  canoe  and  bateau 
routes,  all  the  Indian  trails  and  the  military  roads,  all  the  bridle 
paths  and  wagon  roads,  converged  here.  If  these  roads  which 
have  now  become  great  highways  of  commerce  and  of  pleasure 
could  speak,  they  would  tell  pathetic  stories.  Every  hamlet  along 
their  sides  has  had  its  horrible  tragedy,  and  there  is  little  exag- 
geration in  saying  that  every  rod  of  the  way  has  been  crimsoned 
with  human  blood.  Many  times  they  have  witnessed  serious 
events  of  very  great  national  significance.  The  road  from  here  to 
New  York,  and  particularly  the  old  warpath  of  the  Iroquois,  and 
of  the  French  and  Indian  wars,  and  of  the  two  wars  with  England, 
running  from  here  to  the  Canada  line,  are  by  all  odds  the  most 
historically  important  roadways  in  America.  The  possession  of 
these  roads  did  not  assure  the  final  triumph  in  Colonial  days,  but 
there  could  be  no  victory  for  the  side  that  did  not  hold  the  Albany 
gateway. 

In  the  Civil  War  this  city  was  happily  free  from  the  fighting, 
but  the  rivers  and  the  roads  continued,  and  by  that  time  they  had 
been  augmented  by  the  canals  and  the  railroads.  All  the  political 
thoroughfares  were  also  wide  open  and  had  easy  grades  to  this  city. 
Geographical  situations  and  natural  advantages  joined  with  the 
potential  significance  of  the  capital  of  the  most  powerful  state  to 
make  this  city  a  place  of  prime  importance  through  the  contest 
for  the  integrity  of  the  Union. 

Let  us  look  at  the  place  in  that  wonderful  summer  of  fifty  years 
ago,  from  the  local  and  inside  rather  than  the  general  and  outside 
point  of  view.  The  city  had  62,000  inhabitants.  The  center  of 
population  had  not  reached  half  as  far  from  the  river  as  it  now 
has.  The  center  of  wealth  was  below  Eagle  street.  The  resi- 
dences of  the  more  prosperous  citizens  were  mostly  at  the  north 
and  south  ends,  well  under  the  hills.  The  site  of  this  church  was 
on  the  very  western  border  of  the  built-up  city.  Willett  street  as 
well  as  State  street,  and  Lydius  street  (now  Madison  avenue) 
west  of  Willett  street,  were  bordered  by  only  occasional  houses, 
mostly  frame.  From  our  church  door — if  the  church  had  then 
been  built  —  we  would  have  looked  out  on  Washington  Parade 
Ground.  It  had  been  the  militia  training  field  from  early  days, 
and  at  that  time  was  the  carelessly  kept  public  resort  for  military 
drills,  and  firemen's  tournaments,  and  ball  games,  or  anything  else 
that  demanded  room.     It  was  a  rather  long  parallelogram  running 


27 

along  the  east  side  of  the  present  park  from  State  street  to  Madi- 
son avenue.  West  of  the  parade  ground  there  was  here  and  there 
a  residence  on  what  is  now  park  ground,,  a  few  on  the  park  side 
of  Madison  avenue,  and  on  the  park  side  of  State  street  there  was 
an  ancient  "  burying  ground." 

The  city  did  not  anticipate  the  assault  upon  Sumter.  The  news- 
papers were  not  so  many  as  now;  did  not  publish  extras  so  swiftly, 
and  did  not  carry  the  news  before  there  was  news  to  carry.  The 
first  gun  was  fired  upon  Sunday,  April  14th,  just  at  the  break  of  day. 
The  shock  was  felt  here  very  distinctly.  The  people  lingered  in 
the  churches  and  gathered  in  the  streets  that  morning  to  talk  about 
it.  The  State  officers  and  leaders  in  the  Legislature  met  in  the 
afternoon  and  the  old  capitol  was  lighted  that  night.  The  next 
day  die  President  asked  for  seventeen  regiments  of  militia  from 
New  York  at  once.  The  Albany  regiment  left  the  city  on  Sat- 
urday. The  regiment  was  off  for  three  months  if  needed,  but  the 
war  was  to  be  ended  before  that  time.  The  city  was  almost  beside 
itself  with  patriotic  zeal.  Throughout  the  summer  it  had  the 
aspect  and  atmosphere,  the  tension,  gayety  and  abandon,  of  a  long 
military  gala  day. 

Meetings  were  held  and  committees  formed.  The  fife  and  drum 
were  in  the  air  and  recruiting  offices  on  every  corner,.  There 
were  neither  flags  in  the  stores  to  meet  the  demand  nor  cloth  for 
the  flags  which  every  woman  was  anxious  to  make.  All  the 
children  in  the  school  brought  their  pennies  for  a  flag  and  staff  to 
be  raised  over  the  schoolhouse.  An  enormous  flag  and  staff  were 
raised  at  the  foot  of  State  street.  The  national  colors  burst  over 
and  upon  the  city  in  a  brilliant,  beautiful,  fascinating  shower. 
Nimble  fingers  pleated  rosettes  which  everyone  wore.  Even  the 
soldier  uniforms  contributed  to  the.  great  array  of  burning  colors. 
The  "  Union  blue  "  was  a  little  time  in  developing.  It  took  many 
people  some  time  to  make  the  uniforms  which  were  adopted  when 
it  became  too  evident  that  the  war  would  be  more  than  a  three 
months'  affair.  In  the  meantime  the  Fourth  of  July  uniforms  were 
in  vogue.  The  Ellsworth  Zouaves  of  Chicago  had  fired  the  youth 
of  the  city  in  the  preceding  year  by  their  parade  through  the 
streets  and  marvelous  drill  on  the  parade  ground  in  fantastic 
Turkish  uniforms;  and  baggy  red  trousers,  blue  jackets  with 
rows  of  bell  buttons,  white  moccasins,  and  fez  caps  were  very 
popular.  The  boys  of  the  city,  in  companies  and  even  in  regiments, 
with  as  much  of  this  uniform  and  such  show  of  wooden  muskets 


28 

as  their  money  would  buy,  joined  with  all  the  rest  to  make  the 
Independence  Day  of  that  gay  and  eventful  summer  a  day  which 
no  boy  of  that  period  can  ever  forget. 

Of  course  the  energy  and  enginery  of  it  all  were  in  the  camps 
and  the  coming  and  going  troops.  The  railroads  and  steamboats 
were  speedily  clogged  by  the  soldier  throngs.  Often  a  regiment 
from  northern  and  western  New  York,  or  from  Vermont,  was 
fed  at  the  station.  The  center  of  interest  in  the  city  was  at  the 
camp  called  "  the  barracks "  on  the  ground  where  the  Albany 
Hospital  and  the  Dudley  Observatory  now  stand.  There  was  an 
old  industrial  school  building  there,  and  with  wooden  structures 
soon  erected  it  was  made  to  serve  the  need  of  the  organizing 
troops  nearly  as  well  as  the  tents  they  would  set  up  on  southern 
fields.  The  field  was  inclosed  by  a  high  fence  to  keep  insiders  in 
rather  more  than  to  keep  outsiders  out.  The  gate  was  reached 
by  a  board  walk  from  Madison  avenue  up  the  New  Scotland  road. 
Seven  regiments,  largely  of  the  young  men  of  Albany,  were  there 
organized  and  prepared  to  go  to  the  front  in  that  first  summer 
of  the  war.  Of  course  the  men  attracted  great  numbers  of  rela- 
tives and  friends,  but  the  place  and  its  activities  fascinated  all. 
The  routine  of  the  camp  was  interesting  enough,  but  the  marvelous 
dress  parades  and  reviews  in  the  afternoons  drew  those  of  both 
high  and  low  degree  to  this  center  of  human  energy  and  interest. 
And  the  climax  was  reached  when  the  bugles  and  the  drums 
sounded  the  advance,  and  men  choked  and  cheered  and  women 
waved  and  wept  as  these  full  regiments  of  citizen  soldiers  moved 
down  the  streets  and  through  the  throngs  to  the  fields  of  glory 
and  of  death. 

We  can  not  now  follow  these  men  to  the  battlefields.  But  we 
know  something  of  what  happened  there  and  how  it  reacted  upon 
those  who  stayed  behind.  If  the  summer  of  1861  was  something 
of  a  long  gala  day,  that  of  1862  was  in  marked  contrast  to  it.  Bull 
Run  sobered  the  city  a  little.  Many  more  men  and  much  more 
money  were  needed.  Yet  the  significance  of  Bull  Run  was  not 
very  well  understood.  There  had  been  relatively  few  deaths  and 
the  resources  of  the  city  had  not  been  much  afTected.  But  the 
year  1862  with  Williamsburg,  Hanover  Court  House,  Fair  Oaks, 
McClellan's  campaign  on  the  Peninsula,  Pope's  in  Northern  Vir- 
ginia, Antietam  and  Fredericksburg,  brought  many  an  Albany 
home  to  want  and  laid  many  another  in  the  very  deepest  sorrow. 
The  fair  face  of  the  city  became  serious,  somber,  even  ominous, 


29 

as  means  became  depleted,  as  the  economics  and  moralities  of  her 
life  became  seriously  affected,  as  the  best  of  her  sons  came  home 
wrapped  in  the  flag  they  had  given  their  lives  to  defend,  and  as 
no  man  could  now  see  when  or  what  the  end  was  to  be.  But 
Chancellorsville,  Port  Hudson,  Gettysburg,  the  Wilderness,  Spott- 
sylvania,  Cold  Harbor,  Petersburg,  and  the  Appomattox  campaign 
were  all  to  follow.  The  cost  of  living  and  the  common  inability 
to  meet  it  were  distressing  enough,  but  the  number  and  frequency 
of  the  casualties  were  appalling. 

We  can  not  speak  of  all  the  deserving  sons  of  Albany,  but  we 
recall  the  leading  names  and  the  funerals  in  which  the  whole 
city  was  concerned.  There  was  Major  General  O.  M.  Mitchell, 
director  of  the  Dudley  Observatory,  and  of  fame  as  a  geographer, 
and  Brigadier  General  James  C.  Rice,  both  justly  revered  for  their 
chivalry,  their  sagacity,  and  their  piety.  There  was  Colonel  Lewis 
Benedict,  a  boy  who  won  first  honors  in  the  Boys  Academy  and  at 
Williams  College,  was  both  leading  lawyer  and  legislator,  who 
came  from  Libby  and  Salisbury  prisons,  sick  and  wounded,  to  lead 
another  regiment,  until  his  shattered  body  was  brought  home  in 
the  "  martial  cloak "  that  was  rent  by  bullets  and  stiffened  by 
his  blood;  and  there  was  Colonel  Edward  Frisbie,  of  the  First 
Baptist  Church;  and  Colonel  William  A.  Jackson  who,  perishing 
before  thirty  years  of  age,  became  as  well  known  as  his  father, 
the  long-time  and  very  distinguished  professor  of  mathematics  at 
Union.  There  was  Colonel  John  Wilson,  he  of  the  ruddy  face 
and  Apollo  form,  who  took  the  Van  Rensselaer  classical  and  the 
Caldwell  mathematical  medals  at  the  same  commencement  in  the 
Albany  Academy,  and  who  went  from  the  Baptist  Church  and  the 
Mission  Sunday  School  that  his  father  established  at  the  west 
end,  to  lead  a  regiment  renowned  for  its  gallantry,  until  he  was 
laid  low  in  battle;  he  was  a  florist,  and  in  the  peninsula  campaign 
he  sent  home  some  flowers  he  had  picked  on  the  picket  line  only 
five  miles  from  Richmond.  There  was  Colonel  Michael  K.  Bryan 
of  the  local  militia  regiment  which  was  in  Washington  within  a 
week  from  the  assault  upon  Sumter,  and  who  returned  in  the 
summer  to  raise  another  regiment  and  to  command  it  gallantly 
until  mortally  wounded.  There  was  Colonel  Lewis  O.  Morris, 
another  boy  of  the  Albany  Academy  and  of  West  Point,  whose 
piety  and  gallantry  are  both  remembered.  There  was  the  gallant 
Colonel  James  P.  McMahon,  of  a  fine  Irish  family  well  known  in 
this  city  and  State,  who  fell  upon  the  ramparts  at  Cold  Harbor, 


30 

with  the  colors  in  his  hands.  There  was  Colonel  James  D. 
Visscher,  pierced  by  a  sharpshooter's  bullet  and  dying  in  a  minute 
with  the  words  "  My  poor  mother !  God  help  her !  "  on  his  lips. 
There  were  Lieutenant  Colonels  Frederick  Tremain  and  Michael 
Stafford;  there  were  Majors  Charles  E.  Pruyn  and  George  S. 
Dawson,  and  Edward  A.  Springstead,  and  James  H.  Bogart,  and 
William  Wallace,  and  Miles  McDonald,  and  George  W.  Stack- 
house;  and  Adjutants  Richard  M.  Strong,  of  this  church,  and 
John  H.  Russell;  and  there  is  a  long  list  of  captains  and  lieuten- 
ants—  John  D.  P.  Douw,  William  J.  Temple,  Augustus  I.  Barker, 
James  Kennedy,  Harmon  N.  Merriman,  Edward  Carroll,  Douglas 
Lodge,  John  Sullivan,  William  H.  Pohlman,  Henry  D.  Brower, 
the  Dempseys,  and  William  E.  Orr,  and  very  likely  other  com- 
missioned officers,  whose  names  I  may  have  overlooked.  Every 
one  of  them  had  become,  through  his  family  or  by  his  own  -doings, 
prominent  in  the  religious,  commercial,  or  professional  affairs 
of  the  city.  And  there  were  so  many  others  who  carried  muskets, 
who  had  been  very  vital  factors  in  the  city's  life  and  who  perished 
as  gallantly  as  the  men  who  led  them.  And  there  were  yet  so  many 
more  whose  lives  were  shortened  by  the  hardships  of  the  service. 
The  regiments  which  marched  down  our  broad  streets  with  full 
ranks,  and  were  often  recruited  up  to  fifteen  hundred,  or  two 
thousand,  or  even  twenty-five  hundred  men,  marched  up  the  street 
at  the  end  of  their  service  with  only  two  or  three  or  four  hundred 
men,  who  had  to  be  tenderly  caret!  for  in-order  to  survive  at  ail. 

In  a  word,  this  city  gave  the  men,  the  money,  the  character  and 
the  learning  which  would  have  sustained  all  the  churches  of  the 
city  and  would  have  sufficed  to  establish  and  endow  a  university 
for  the  free  and  liberal  education  of  all  the  children  of  the  city 
forever. 

But  Albany  is  only  a  dot  upon  the  map  of  the  Union.  Every 
place  in  every  state  had  its  part  in  the  conflict  and  has  its  ever- 
continuing  share  in  the  good  and  evil  results.  The  expenditure 
of  money  placed  a  mortgage  obligation  upon  the  country  which 
seems  likely  to  continue  forever.  There  are  vacant  places  and 
soldier  graves  everywhere  in  the  land.  Of  the  four  hundred 
thousand  men  whom  New  York  gave  to  the  army,  the  average 
age  was  only  twenty-five,  fifty  thousand  were  not  above  eighteen, 
and  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  were  not  above  twenty-one 
years  of  age.  More  than  fifty  thousand  perished  upon  the  battle- 
field; twice  or  thrice  that  number  really  gave  their  lives  to  the 


3* 

country ;  and  the  constitutions  of  nearly  all  were  weakened  by  the 
hardships  of  the  service.  It  cost  nearly  a  million  young  men, 
north  and  south,  to  get  rid  of  slavery.  Few  of  them  could  be 
carried  home  to  loving  friends  and  honored  with  stately  and 
Christian  burial.  There  are  twelve  thousand  acres  of  soldier 
graves  on  southern  fields.  They  were  the  most  virile  men  we 
had,  and  their  early  deaths  deprived  the  nation  of  preaching  and 
teaching,  of  literature  and  research,  of  professional  skill 
and  industrial  energy,  of  balanced  conservatism  and  commercial 
thrift,  that  would  have  enriched  its  life  for  an  indefinite  time; 
andr  moreover,  it  deprives  the  nation  of  countless  sons  and 
daughters  who  would  have  been  the  worthy  and  vigorous  offspring 
of  such  forceful  and  self-sacrificing  fathers. 

We  can  not  think  of  all  this  without  emotion.  We  revere  the 
memories  of  those  who  "  paid  the  last  full  measure  of  their  devo- 
tion to  the  Union."  We  would  avoid  further  warfare  and  other 
sacrifices.  But  how  is  this  to  be  assured  ?  It  can  not  be  assured, 
for  men  are  both  fallible  and  forceful  and  nations  are  as  fallible 
and  forceful  as  the  factors  which  compose  them.  But  it  is  an 
ideal  to  be  worked  for  with  singleness  of  moral  purpose  and  with 
rational  appreciation  of  the  difficulties  in  the  way  and  the  methods 
that  contain  the  possibilities  of  promise. 

For  generations  sentimentalists  have  opposed  all  warfare  and 
advocated  peace.  It  has  often  seemed  to  the  men  and  women  who 
constitute  the  bone  and  sinew,  and  have  in  their  keeping  the 
progress  of  the  nation,  that  these  people  have  had  but  a  poor 
appreciation  of  what  makes  peace  that  is  worth  having,  and  that 
they  have  been  searching  for  something  that  was  hardly  worth 
while  and  have  stood  ready  to  purchase  it  at  almost  any  price. 
Happily,  the  movement  which  is  now  attracting  so  much  support 
in  all  countries,  but  which  has  been  distinctly  led  by  this  country, 
may  be  acquitted  of  any  ignorance  of  history,  of  the  hard  facts 
of  life,  or  of  rational  ways  and  means  which  may  accomplish 
large  ends.  And,  fortunately,  it  has  gained  the  aid  of  the  leading 
powers  of  the  world. 

What  is  peace?  There  are  laws  or  principles  which  operate  in 
all  the  affairs  of  the  natural  world.  They  relate  to  matter  and  to 
motion,  to  life  and  to  thought.  They  keep  the  world  in  equilibrium 
but  in  action.  We  know  little  about  it,  but  we  can  not  fail  to  see 
that  there  is  universal  periodicity  and  harmony  and  progress  in 
all  the  great  factors  of  the  universe.     It  is  undoubtedly  as  true 


32 

of  the  mental  and  moral  as  of  the  physical  universe.  Men  are 
subordinate  to  all  that,  and  at  peace  when  they  are  in  accord  with 
it.    There  can  be  no  peace  except  upon  the  basis  of  universal  law. 

If  I  break  my  agreement  with  another  it  is  absurd  to  expect 
him  to  do  nothing  about  it,  for  the  sake  of  peace.  The  only  peace 
there  can  be  depends  upon  keeping  obligations,  and  one  with  whom 
I  break  faith  doubtless  contributes  to  the  peace  of  the  world  by 
requiring  me  to  meet  my  obligation.  The  operations  of  a  factory 
may  be  stopped  by  a  strike.  The  strike  may  or  may  not  find  jus- 
tification in  the  inadequate  compensation  of  workmen.  There  may 
be  no  violence,  there  may  be  quiet,  but  there  is  no  peace.  It  is 
only  paralysis  where  there  ought  to  be  life  and  energy  on  the 
basis  of  a  just  division  of  profits,  taking  into  account  the  capital, 
experience,  risks,  managing  capacity,  skill,  industry,  and  honesty 
contributed  by  all  interested.  The  Iroquois  drove  the  Hurons  to 
the  Canadian  wilderness  and  then  followed  and  scalped  them  all. 
They  called  it  peace:  it  was  only  desolation.  The  English  moved 
six  thousand  Acadians  from  their  home  and  distributed  them 
among  the  English  colonies  in  America  to  insure  peace.  They  only 
produced  bitterness  of  which  they  never  saw  the  end.  Peace  can 
be  predicated  upon  nothing  but  rights,  energy,  integrity,  and 
progress.  It  is  the  outworking  of  the  divine  order.  It  is  not 
necessarily  opposed  to  physical  force ;  indeed,  it  is  often  dependent 
upon  it.  The  Pilgrim  Fathers  had  the  moral  right  to  come  to 
America  even  though  savages  resented  it.  Pioneer  farmers  had 
the  right  to  move  west  and  break  farms  and  set  up  churches  and 
schools,  although  it  made  a  trail  of  blood  all  the  way  to  the 
Pacific  coast.  Protestantism  and  independence  had  the  right  to 
uplift  themselves  in  America.  All  war  has  not  been  as  wicked 
as  some  seem  to  think.  At  least  one  side  has  often  been  as 
righteous  and  noble  as  any  activity  in  history.  Washington's 
army  was  as  righteous  as  the  Declaration  it  made  good.  Lincoln's 
armies  were  as  righteous  as  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
they  enforced.  The  right  of  civilization  to  live  and  even  to  go  for- 
ward may  be  enforced  by  physical  strength.  It  is  in  the  universal 
plan.  Civilization  is  the  concrete  expression  of  justice,  of  industry, 
of  mental  and  moral  progress. 

Unhappily,  in  every  society  there  are  vicious  and  dissolute  char- 
acters who  have  to  be  restrained,  or  wholly  controlled;  and  in  the 
family  of  nations  there  are  buccaneering  members  who  have  to 
be   ignored,   avoided,   ostracized,   or   even   disciplined   when  they 


33 

outrage  accepted  principles  of  international  law.  The  propriety 
of  the  physical  force  which  keeps  our  homes  and  our  coasts  secure 
is  beyond  all  question.  This  consists  of  the  local  constable,  the 
county  sheriff  and  his  deputies,  the  city  police,  the  State  militia 
or  National  Guard,  and  the  regular  army  and  navy  of  the  United 
States.  This  is  the  police  power.  It  is  set  up  to  carry  out  the 
laws  which  the  people  make.  It  is  the  orderly  carrying  out  of  the 
common  will  by  the  common  power.  We  can  change  these  laws, 
we  can  change  the  officers  who  execute  them,  if  change  is  desira- 
ble. Law  is  only  the  gospel  and  the  commandments  translated 
into  a  form  capable  of  application  to  developing  situations  in  a 
complex  and  advancing  civilization.  These  laws  and  these  officers 
assure  us  security  of  person  and  property;  and  with  the  other 
attributes  of  our  political  system  they  afford  us  the  free  oppor- 
tunity to  make  the  most  of  ourselves  through  our  own  unaided 
effort  and  through  the  creation  of  institutions  which  will  serve  and 
uplift  all  the  people.  We  have  no  more  security  in  the  United 
States  than  the  people  have  in  many  other  countries ;  but  in  no  other 
country,  with  the  possible  exception  of  the  little  republic  of 
Switzerland,,  is  there  so  much  freedom  of  opportunity.  Therefore, 
despite  all  the  energy  and  ambition  and  unrest  natural  among  men 
of  opportunity,  we  have,  as  I  think,  a  more  secure  basis  of  peace 
than  any  other  nation  in  the  world. 

The  modern  peace  movement  seeks  to  secure  laws  that  will 
extend  this  police  power  which  exists  within  every  nation,  so  that 
it  will  be  effective  between  all  nations.  That  is,  along  boundary 
lines  and  upon  the  seas,  the  great  international  highways.  In  this 
way  outrages,  disputes  and  conflicts  between  nations  will  be  pre- 
vented, as  is  the  case  in  our  internal  affairs.  It  also  seeks  to 
secure  full  and  frank  discussion  of  international  disputes,  arbitra- 
tion where  discussion  does  not  suffice,  and  a  ready  court  of  learn- 
ing and  character  to  try  international  controversies  which  can  not 
be  otherwise  settled.  It  is  simply  making  constitutionalism  inter- 
national as  well  as  national. 

The  only  way  a  law  binding  upon  sovereign  nations  can  be 
made  is  by  treaty  agreement.  Of  course  custom  may  fix,  and 
often  has  fixed,  principles  of  international  as  well  as  of  national 
laws.  Conquest  has  often  done  it.  But  the  only  enduring  and 
conclusive  way  is  by  treaty.  This  peace  movement  has  already 
resulted  in  many  treaties  which  must  go  a  long  way  toward 
assuring  peace  because  they  have  been  made  between  powers  of 


34 

the  first  importance.  Other  treaties,  and  much  more  comprehen- 
sive ones,  are  on  the  way.  Indeed,  the  nations  now  seem  to  be 
sensitive  to  any  oversight  about  inviting  them  into  these 
agreements. 

It  is  the  unexpected  that  happens  —  at  least,  things  come  about 
in  unexpected  ways.  Modern  implements  of  warfare  have  taken 
out  of  war  the  personal  elements  and  such  redeeming  features 
and  influences  as  it  had.  Like  almost  everything  else,  the  thing  is 
actually  done  by  machinery.  It  is  now  little  more  than  downright 
human  butchery  by  machinery.  Interest  in  it  is  mainly  among 
professional  soldiers  and  sailors  who  invent  or  operate  the 
machines  and  men  who  make  and  sell  the  machines.  And  there 
has  to  be  so  much  machinery,  and  it  is  costing  so  much,  that  the 
nations  are  being  impoverished.  One  of  these  machines  costs 
$12,000,000,  as  much  as  a  decent  university  costs,  and  the  military 
people  want  hundreds  of  them.  They  talk  much  of  the  probability 
of  conflict  and  the  need  of  preparedness  for  war. 

In  recent  years  we  have  been  hearing  much  of  that  even  in 
this  country.  We  have  no  close  neighbors  who  covet  our  terri- 
tory: we  are  free  from  such  complicated  and  menacing  situations 
as  the  European  nations  are  in.  We  want  nothing  to  which  we 
are  not  easily  entitled,  and  our  diplomacy  has  always  been  singu- 
larly open  and  direct.  Yet  we  hear  much  of  the  necessity  of  our 
preparedness  for  war.  We  must  reckon  with  the  fact  that  there 
are  large  elements  in  our  population  who  are  in  favor  of  war,  or 
at  least  of  a  preparedness  for  war.  There  are  officers  of  the  army 
and  navy  who  think  most  of  matters  which  mean  most  to  them. 
The  possibility  of  war  h  inciting  to  the  profession  of  arms.  The 
enlargement  of  the  fighting  arms  of  the  government  means  pro- 
motion and  distinction,  and  to  have  vast  armaments  without  use 
for  them  seems  a  waste  of  efficiency  and  involves  mistakes  in 
professional  prognostication.  So  there  are  organizations  in  the 
army  and  navy  to  promote  appropriations  and  agitate  the  school 
boys  with  the  attractions  of  life  in  camp  and  on  shipboard.  Then 
there  are  influential  factors  in  the  community  who  thrive  on  war- 
fare or  even  on  preparations  for  warfare.  So  the  coincidence 
between  the  prophecy  of  foreign  wars  and  the  pendency  of  army 
and  navy  appropriation  bills  is  not  so  remarkable  after  all.  It 
would  seem  as  though  the  solid  sentiment  of  the  country  should 
resent  it. 

If  I  were  to  meet  my  friend  Adjutant  General  Verbeck  on  a 
peaceful  May  morning,  in  full  uniform,  booted  and  spurred  and 


35 

armed  to  the  teeth,  I  should  have  to  ask  what  was  the  matter. 
If  he  should  say  he  had  to  be  prepared  for  war  for  some  one 
might  assault  him,  I  should  assure  him  that  that  was  absurd,  that 
he  had  no  enemy  in  the  world,  that  every  one  liked  him,  that  if  a 
crazy  man  attacked  him  every  other  man  would  aid  him,  and  that 
his  preparedness  for  assault  was  likely  to  make  some  lighthead 
crazy  enough  to  make  it.  If  he  kept  on  in  this  way,  it 
would  be  evident  that  he  required  an  official  inquiry  into  his 
sanity  and  that  the  State,  to  the  regret  of  everybody,  would  have 
to  look  for  another  Adjutant  General.  Unthinkable  as  this  is,  it 
is  no  more  ridiculous  than  the  monumental  demands  for  fighting 
equipment  in  the  present  peaceful  situation  of  the  United  States. 
The  fact  is  the  United  States  has  never  required  and  does  not 
now  require  preparedness  for  war.  In  the  light  of  history  the 
assumptions  that  the  nations  with  military  power  are  only  waiting 
to  pounce  upon  a  strong  and  remote  people  who  mind  their  own 
business,  is  absurd.  And  there  is  less  likelihood  of  the  United 
States  being  forced  into  war  at  this  time  than  at  any  other  time 
in  our  history.  The  settlement  of  the  country  is  about  completed, 
and  the  character  and  relations  of  our  political  and  religious  insti- 
tutions have  been  substantially  determined.  Slavery  is  gone.  We 
are  all  under  one  flag.  We  have  not  two  republics,  with  a  possi- 
bility of  twenty,  between  the  St  Lawrence  and  the  Rio  Grande, 
as  we  might  have  had  if  the  men  whom  we  revere  tonight  had  not 
succeeded,  and  we  have  not  the  difficulties  that  would  have  arisen 
between  the  vigorous  and  ambitious  peoples  in  so  many  sovereign 
republics.  We  have  union  as  well  as  liberty,  and  it  is  the  ark  of 
our  security  and  peace.  Our  relations  with  other  nations  are  salu- 
tary. Foreign  powers  are  not  disposed  to  war  with  us.  Our  coasts 
are  now  secure  enough  against  freebooting,  and  they  are  too 
remote  for  assault  by  any  power,  great  or  small,  at  least  without 
unthinkable  provocation.  There  is  no  peril,  perhaps  for  very  dif- 
ferent reasons,  on  either  our  northern  or  our  southern  borders. 
The  nation  is  not  going  to  cross  the  seas  to  pick  quarrels  with 
other  nations.  We  are  not  seeking  empire.  We  are  disposed  to 
bear  our  share  of  the  world's  burdens,  but  it  is  doubtful  if  the 
sentiment  or  the  conscience  of  the  country  would  sustain  a  war 
waged  for  the  privilege  of  training  remote  peoples  in  the  system 
of  government  which  means  so  much  to  us.  What  we  need  to  do 
is  to  attend  assiduously  to  our  own  business  and  go  on  developing 
our   political    institutions    so   that   they   may    endure   and   afford 


36 

opportunity  for  the  yet  more  complete  and  luxuriant  outworking 
of  our  intellectual,  our  religious,  and  our  industrial  freedom. 

It  is  fitting  that  such  a  nation  should  lead  the  movement  for 
world  peace,  and  it  is  a  jewel  in  the  crown  of  the  Republic  that 
she  leads  it  so  generously,  so  ably,  and  with  so  much  weight  of 
legal  learning  and  official  influence. 

In  a  few  months  we  shall  look  out  from  our  church  doors  upon 
a  noble  and  beautiful  monument  which  the  city  is  erecting  out  of 
respect  for  our  soldier  and  sailor  dead.  It  will  honor  the  dead, 
and  it  will  honor  the  living  too.  It  will  speak  for  the  dead  to  the 
living,  and  it  will  speak  for  freedom  and  union,  for  law  and  order, 
for  conciliation  and  concord,  for  equipoise  and  energy  and  pro- 
gress, for  the  "  peace  on  earth  and  good  will  toward  men  "  which 
the  angels  proclaimed  nearly  two  thousand  years  ago. 

And,  after  all,  purposes  are  stronger  than  statutes  and  feelings 
go  further  than  treaties.  The  spirit  and  teachings  of  Christianity 
constitute  the  surest,  indeed  the  only,  bond  of  peace  and  progress 
that  reaches  around  the  world. 


LINCOLN   IN  HIS  WRITINGS 


LINCOLN  IN  HIS  WRITINGS  x 

In  the  thought  of  the  world  Lincoln  grows  greater  and  greater 
with  the  passing  of  the  years.  The  universal  interest  in  all  that 
concerns  his  career  becomes  more  and  more  acute.  The  quest 
for  information  about  all  he  did  and  all  he  thought  has  been 
incessant  and  untiring  and  ingenious.  It  can  not  be  that  there  are 
many  more  incidents  of  his  life  to  be  discovered  and  sustained 
by  good  evidence,  although  it  is  likely  enough  that  further  search 
for  the  information  which  justified  and  the  intellectual  processes 
by  which  he  reached  well-known  conclusions  will  be  rewarded. 
Probably  all  the  physical  facts  associated  with  his  life  that  will 
ever  be  known  are  already  known.  The  rest  depend  upon  the 
reasoning  of  the  judge  and  are  matters  of  opinion. 

To  my  mind  there  does  not  appear  the  slightest  sign  of  popular 
reaction  which  a  few  have  thought  they  saw.  The  common 
thought  of  the  people  dismisses  many  stories  that  have  been  related 
of  Lincoln,  and  discounts  much  that  has  been  said  of  him,  and 
steadily  deepens  in  its  appreciation  of  him.  The  simple  facts  that 
are  well  known  appeal  more  and  more  to  the  feelings  of  the  mul- 
titude. It  is  not  those  things  which  are  doubtful  or  mysterious, 
but  the  simple  and  sober  facts  of  his  modest  and  serious  life  and 
the  irresistible  outworking  of  his  logical  mind,  that  make  the 
character  of  Lincoln  more  and  yet  more  impressive  with  the 
unfolding  years. 

In  this  little  book  we  are  to  set  forth  the  greatest  of  his 
writings.  They  will  be  placed  in  chronological  order.  We  shall 
see  that  he  dealt  with  a  definite  though  somewhat  comprehensive 
subject.  It  involved  the  legal  phases  of  his  country's  doings  about 
African  slavery.  All  else  that  he  did  bears  only  upon  the  person- 
ality of  an  interesting  because  unique  character,  and  is  subordinate 
to  and  far  below  the  doings  which  place  the  progressive  world 
under  obligations  to  him.  We  shall  see  that  associated  with  the 
extreme  plainness  of  the  man  and  the  marked  simplicity  of  his 
life  there  was  logical  reasoning  that  is  inexorable  and  unanswer- 
able, expressed  in  a  literary  style  that  has  of  itself  impressed  the 
world  and  is  distinctly  and  completely  his  own.    And  we  shall  see 


1  Introduction  to  the  Lincoln  volume  of  the  Gateway  series. 

39 


40 

that  his  legal  reasoning  crystallized  and  solidified,  and  that  his  man- 
ner of  expression  became  yet  more  chaste  and  strong  and  dis- 
tinctive as  he  moved  on  from  the  opening  to  the  culmination  of 
his  career. 

Seeing  all  this  we  necessarily  ask  the  reasons  for  it,  and  we  must 
find  them  not  in  the  mysteries  but  in  the  verities  of  his  life.  One 
must  now  look  upon  Lincoln  according  to  his  own  lights,  his  own 
views  of  men,  and  his  own  understanding  of  events.  The  simple 
view  of  a  simple  life,  which  through  its  very  simplicity  and  its 
singular  opportunity  became  great,  is  likely  to  be  the  truer  one. 

In  childhood  Lincoln  was  poor,  deplorably  poor.  His  father 
moved  easily  and  was  certainly  unsubstantial.  It  is  quite  apparent 
that  more  and  better  than  this  may  be  said  of  his  mother.  The 
boy  grew  up  tall  and  lank,  but  sinewy  and  strong.  He  lived  almost 
wholly  in  the  open,  and  engaged  in  the  vocations  of  the  farm,  the 
country  store,  and  the  nearby  river.  He  was  at  times  exclusive 
and  moody,  and  at  other  times  he  mixed  freely  in  the  primitive 
games  and  discussions  of  the  neighborhood.  He  was  never  devoid 
of  humor.  He  was  aggressive  enough  even  in  his  youth  to  make 
an  early  impression  upon  a  rude  civilization.  His  absolute  honesty 
was  always  acknowledged.  His  spirit  was  warm  in  its  kindliness, 
exact  in  its  sincerity,  and  reverent  toward  the  higher  things  of 
life.  From  first  to  last  he  was  a  very  plain  American  boy  and 
man,  intensely  human,  and  he  was  always  in  political  and  profes- 
sional activities  which  often  make  flaws  or  find  fissures  in  human 
nature.  But  the  most  penetrating  search  into  all  he  did  has  re- 
vealed no  selfishness  or  guile  among  the  splendid  ingredients  of  his 
character. 

He  was  educated.  Any  other  view  would  be  absurd.  Of  course 
he  was  without  the  finish  and  polish,  the  superficial  artfulness, 
which  too  many  think  the  exclusive  evidence  of  education;  but, 
better  than  that,  his  mind  was  trained  into  an  efficient  machine.  It 
could  gather  and  digest  facts  and  draw  conclusions  and  express 
them  in  a  convincing  way.  Surely  that  is  education.  He  was 
self-educated.  He  went  to  school  but  little.  What  he  learned  he 
dug  out  himself,  and  he  dug  out  not  a  little  but  a  great  deal.  He 
brought  himself  to  square  with  knowledge  that  was  exact.  He 
knew  as  much  of  mathematics  as  any  one  in  his  region.  He  mas- 
tered grammar  as  well  as  mathematics.  He  was  much  interested 
in  such  exact  development  of  the  natural  sciences  as  there  had 
been  up  to  his  time.     He  read  Shakespeare  and  Burns.     He  had  a 


41 

propensity  for  poetry,  particularly  the  "  little  sad  songs,"  as  he 
called  them.  He  developed  a  phenomenal  memory,  could  recall 
all  he  had  read,  and  repeat  verses  and  passages  almost  word"  for 
word.  So  his  mind  became  not  only  trained,  but  stored.  He  ac- 
quired rich  intellectual  stores,  and  he  also  acquired  the  power  to 
draw  upon  and  use  them.  Relatively  speaking  — and  the  whole 
world  is  relative  —  he  became  intellectually  wealthy  and  noted 
in  the  region  round  about  for  his  mental  powers  and  resources. 

The  further  progress  of  his  career  was  orderly  and  natural. 
There  is  little  of  the  mysterious,  and  nothing  of  the  supernatural, 
about  it.  It  may  be  summed  up  in  a  sentence.  He  knew  the 
fundamentals  of  the  law  and  the  groundwork  of  society;  he  liked 
politics;  he  became  an  expert  on  the  relations  of  slavery  to  the 
political  philosophy  and  institutions  of  the  Republic;  he  foresaw 
the  only  attitude  which  his  country  could  take  upon  that  question 
and  endure;  he  was  able  to  make  that  plain  to  plain  people:  all 
the  rest  "  did  itself,"  for  it  was  only  the  necessary  result. 

Lincoln  was  a  fine  lawyer.  He  tried  many  cases  and  argued 
many  appeals;  he  had  a  large  measure  of  professional  success. 
He  did  not  insult  the  judge,  browbeat  witnesses,  quarrel  with 
counsel,  anger  the  jury,  get  beaten  and  then  mislead  and  swindle 
his  clients.  He  had  care  about  the  causes  he  espoused,  but  when 
he  took  up  a  burden  he  carried  it  to  the  end  of  the  journey.  There 
were  not  so  many  precedents  in  the  law  books  in  his  day  as  now, 
and  not  so  many  law  books.  He  would  not  have  paid  very  much 
attention  to  them,  if  there  had  been,  any  more  than  the  very 
great  lawyers  do  now.  His  legal  reasoning  was  of  the  kind  that 
could  stand  alone.  He  knew  the  sources,  the  philosophy,  and  the 
spirit  and  intent  of  the  law ;  and  this  knowledge,  with  his  powers 
of  application,  carried  him  to  an  invulnerable  position  as  to  the 
justness  of  his  cause.  Seeing  that  clearly,  he  used  all  plainness 
and  exactness  of  speech  to  compel  the  court  or  the  jury  to  see  it 
as  he  did. 

Whether  or  not  Mr  Lincoln  was  a  "  politician  "  depends  upon 
the  definition  of  the  word.  He  was  unquestionably  fond  of  public 
life.  He  clearly  enjoyed  political  campaigns.  He  looked  after  the 
selections  of  delegates,  the  nominations  of  candidates,  and  the 
declarations  of  conventions.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Legislature 
several  times,  and  of  Congress  once.  He  went  through  a  long  and 
notable  canvass  of  Illinois  for  the  office  of  United  States  Senator 
and  was  beaten  by  Senator  Douglas.     But  it  never  occurs  to  any 


42 

one  that  all  this  was  because  he  wanted  office.  It  was  all  in  con- 
sequence of  his  interest  in  the  political  life  and  health  of  the 
country.  It  was  because  his  legal  and  logical  mind  tended  very 
naturally  to  the  making  of  laws,  and  became  expert  upon  the 
political  structure  of  the  Republic.  He  was  chosen  to  the  presi- 
dency because  he  was  the  first  to  reconcile  the  moral  feelings  of 
the  greater  number  of  his  countrymen  with  the  fundamental  laws 
of  the  country  upon  the  momentous  question  of  slavery;  because 
he  first  declared  the  attitudes  which  the  Republic  must  take  upon 
that  subject  if  it  was  to  endure.  The  inherent  sincerity  of  the 
man,  his  fascination  for  political  philosophy,  his  new  and  definite 
position  upon  the  slavery  question,  and  his  remarkable  gifts  in 
writing  and  speaking  his  opinions,  forced  him  into  the  forum,  and 
carried  him  to  the  presidency,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  looked 
upon  public  life  as  something  of  a  drawback  and  disadvantage  to 
himself. 

And  what  was  his  attitude  upon  the  burning  and  consuming 
question  of  slavery?  He  was  born  in  a  slave  state,  understood 
the  Southern  people  perfectly,  and  had  much  in  common  with 
them,  but  he  believed  that  no  man  should  "  eat  his  bread  in  the 
sweat  of  another  man's  brow,"  and  hoped  for  the  time  when  "  all 
men  everywhere  might  be  free."  There  were  good  men,  and 
many  of  them,  who  would  abolish  slavery,  at  once,  by  law  and  if 
necessary  by  force,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  an  unmitigated  evil 
and  could  justly  be  treated  in  no  other  way ;  but  Mr  Lincoln  was 
not  one  of  them.  He  did  not  localize  responsibility  for  slavery  in 
the  South.  He  held,  and  truly,  that  the  whole  country  had  in  the 
beginning  participated  in  the  evil,  that  it  was  legally  recognized  and 
approved  by  the  convention  which  framed  the  Federal  Constitu- 
tion, and  that  if  this  had  not  been  done  there  would  have  been  no 
"  more  perfect  Union."  He  saw  that  economic  conditions  had 
defeated  the  common  hope  that  slavery  would  dwindle  and  perish, 
which  was  indulged  by  the  fathers  of  the  Republic.  He  thought 
that,  whether  repugnant  to  moral  sense  or  not,  the  laws  of  the  coun- 
try conferred  a  legal  right  of  property  in  slaves,  and  that  laws  were 
to  be  respected  so  long  as  they  were  laws.  His  lawyer-mind  saw 
that  slave  owners  had  property  in  slaves  which  was  given  to  them 
by  the  laws  of  the  country,  and  he  was  opposed  to  taking  this 
legal  right  away  from  them  without  paying  them  for  the  loss  they 
would  sustain.  He  was  reluctant  about  taking  it  away,  even  with 
compensation,   if   without   their   consent.      Moreover,   he    foresaw 


43 

that  it  was  not  possible  to  pass  and  enforce  laws  doing  away  with 
slavery,  without  bloodshed  and  without  the  real  danger  that  the 
Union  might  be  dissolved  and  democratic  progress  receive  a  blow 
from  which  it  might  not  recover  in  generations.  Therefore  he 
was  opposed  to  the  forcible  abolition  of  slavery  at  the  time.  So 
far  as  rights  in  slave  property  had  been  given  by  law,  he  would 
uphold  them.    As  to  slavery  in  the  slave  states,  he  would  wait. 

But  slavery  was  more  aggressive  than  freedom.  Under  one  pre- 
text or  another,  and  with  one  plan  of  procedure  or  another,  it 
sought  to  enter  free  territory.  Its  spokesmen  were  able,  its  sophis- 
tries were  specious,  and  its  determination  was  of  the  kind  which 
realizes  that  its  very  life  is  at  stake.  It  was  coming  to  be  that  the 
atmosphere  of  the  world  was  charged  with  the  feeling  that  human 
bondage  was  a  moral  wrong  and  was  doomed.  The  inconsistency 
of  it  in  a  new  world  republic  dedicated  to  the  principle  that  all 
men  are  entitled  to  equal  rights  under  the  law,  was  humiliating. 
It  was  beginning  to  look  as  though  either  slavery  or  freedom  would 
have  to  go,  in  America  at  least.  The  expansion  of  the  spirit  of 
freedom  only  exasperated  the  slave  system  and  made  it  more 
desperate.  If  the  country  was  to  become  all  slave  or  all  free,  the 
slave  states  were  determined  that  it  should  become  all  slave.  For 
half  a  century,  in  one  way  and  another,  it  had  been  able  to  main- 
tain at  least  a  voting  equilibrium  in  the  Senate  between  slave  states 
and  free ;  it  had  managed  to  have  a  president  from  the  South,  or  a 
"  northern  man  with  southern  sympathies,"  practically  all  that 
time ;  and  it  had  secured,  perhaps  not  so  illogically  as  the  North 
thought,  the  decisions  of  the  Supreme  Court  which  extended  legal 
rights  over  slaves  taken  into  or  fleeing  into  free  territory. 

All  this  and  even  more  the  North  was  disposed  to  acquiesce  in 
reluctantly,  rather  than  force  a  course  which  any  could  hold  to  be 
the  unjust  cause  of  a  sectional  war.  But  when  Senator  Douglas, 
of  Illinois,  the  great  leader  of  the  political  party  that  for  half  a 
century  had  been  dominant  in  the  nation,  cast  aside  the  compro- 
mises and  agreements  which  had  been  the  doubtful  basis  of  a 
semblance  of  peace  for  a  generation,  and  secured  legislation  giving 
slavery  the  legal  opportunity  to  enter  the  free  territories  —  the 
common  lands  of  all  the  people — and  thus  acquire  the  political 
control  in  the  nation  and  a  preponderance  of  votes  in  the  Senate, 
Lincoln  shattered  the  sophistry  of  the  senator  and  set  the  stakes 
beyond  which,  war  or  no  war,  slavery  ought  not  to  be  allowed  to 
go  by  so  much  as  the  breadth  of  a  hair.    He  did  it  in  a  state  in  the 


44 

politics  of  which  Douglas  had  been  absolute  master  for  a  score  of 
years;  in  a  political  campaign  which  took  every  last  voter  of  the 
state  into  consideration;  and  with  a  result  which  showed  that  con- 
victions were  looking  for  opportunities  to  limit  if  not  destroy  the 
slave  system,  and  which  made  the  new  tribune  of  the  people  the 
logical  and  inevitable  candidate  for  the  presidency.  The  returns 
of  the  presidential  election  withdrew  eventualities  from  the  hands 
of  lawmakers  and  replaced  them  in  the  hands  of  the  God  of  truth 
and  freedom,  as  well  as  in  the  hands  of  the  God  of  battles. 

So  much  it  has  seemed  necessary  to  say  to  recall  to  the  reader's 
mind  the  setting  of  Lincoln's  addresses  and  state  papers.  The 
purity  of  his  literary  style  is  entrancing.  His  effort  to  make  what 
he  wanted  to  say  plain  to  any  understanding  in  the  fewest  possible 
words  is  always  apparent.  Before  he  reached  his  zenith  he  had 
read  many  of  the  standard  authors;  he  was  fond  of  poetry;  he 
could  quote  by  the  hour;  but  he  drew  upon  literature  hardly  at  all 
to  embellish  what  he  wrote  and  what  he  said.  He  had  been  a  stu- 
dent of  law  and  of  politics,  and  was  familiar  with  all  that  had 
been  said  upon  the  question  of  slavery;  he  had  read  the  fathers  of 
the  Republic,  and  was  familiar  with  Webster,  Clay,  and  Calhoun, 
as  he  certainly  was  with  Theodore  Parker  and  Giddings  and 
Greeley  and  Seward  and  Sumner;  but  he  called  none  of  them  to 
the  aid  of  his  writings  and  his  speeches.  The  substance  of  all  he 
said  was  that  slavery  was  fundamentally  wrong ;  that  while  it  might 
be  tolerated  within  existing  territorial  limitations  it  must  not  be 
allowed  to  extend  over  an  inch  of  free  territory;  that  the  progress 
of  the  world  demanded  that  the  union  of  the  states  be  preserved 
at  whatever  hazard;  that  he  would  not  bring  on  a  war  to  abolish 
slavery,  but  would  resist  one  to  sever  the  Union;  and  that  all  the 
rest  was  necessarily  in  the  keeping  of  the  Almighty. 

If  Lincoln  did  not  ornament  his  writings  with  quotations  from 
the  great  orators  and  authors,  he  did  not  blemish  them  by  the  arts 
of  the  demagogue  or  by  the  use  of  the  commonplace.  Of  course, 
before  he  came  to  the  presidency  his  work  was  with  a  plain,  hardy, 
pioneer  people,  and  his  illustrations  were  of  a  kind  which  would 
illustrate  to  them.  But  there  was  nothing  of  the  commonplace  in 
that ;  it  was  precisely  that  which  trained  his  great  power  to  express 
his  convictions  in  ways  to  compel  all  people  to  understand.  He 
had  a  keen  sense  of  humor,  and  it  helped  him.  He  knew  more 
anecdotes  than  most  men,  and  in  conversation  he  had  no  trouble 
in  recalling  one  to  aptly  enforce  his  point ;  but  he  used  them  not  at 


45 

all  in  his  writings  and  most  sparingly  in  his  political  addresses. 
In  the  great  joint  debates  with  Senator  Douglas,  neither  of  the 
speakers  related  a  story. 

Lincoln  had  no  thought  of  producing  "  literature,"  although  all 
he  said  and  wrote  makes  fine  reading  now.  His  early  political 
speeches  show  not  a  little  ridicule  and  irony,  a  directness  of  thrust 
and  a  quickness  of  repartee  which  are  of  course  absent  from  his 
later  state  papers,  but  there  is  nothing  which  might  better  have 
been  omitted.  Although  his  responsibilities  became  heavier  and 
his  words  correspondingly  serious  as  his  career  advanced,  there  is 
a  uniformity  of  outlook  and  method  and  style  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end  of  his  career;  and  there  is  also  a  steadily  growing  con- 
secration to  a  cause  which  was  pathetically  and  completely  crowned 
by  the  manner  of  his  death. 

To  the  graver  and  more  stately  public  addresses  which  are  best 
known  we  have  added  several  more  informal  addresses  to  delega- 
tions, with  which  the  people  are  much  less  familiar,  and  a  consid- 
erable number  of  letters,  of  which  by  far  the  most  people  know 
nothing  at  all.  To  my  mind  these  less  known  papers,  hastily  pre- 
pared and  without  thought  of  such  use  as  we  are  making  of  them 
now,  prove  Lincoln's  superior  mind  and  magnanimous  soul  even 
more  completely  than  do  the  more  dignified  state  papers  which  are 
better  known.  They  also  go  even  further  to  show  that  his  master- 
ful and  distinctive  English  style  was  a  common  habit.  His  grasp 
of  fundamental  principles  never  hesitated,  his  logic  never  faltered, 
his  good,  pure  expression  was  as  common  as  any  other  habit  of 
his  life. 

The  selections  for  this  book  have  been  made  in  the  hope  of 
exemplifying  the  uniform  strength  and  beauty  of  his  writings 
from  the  viewpoint  of  literature,  and  the  compelling  convictions 
and  vital  reasoning  which  did  more  than  all  else  to  make  them  so. 
From  the  very  beginning  his  words  were  marked  by  much  feeling, 
guided  and  governed  by  the  clearest  and  closest  legal  reasoning ; 
but  with  his  coming  to  the  presidency  they  are  enshrouded  in  un- 
avoidable pathos  and  sorrow,  and  throughout  his  administration 
they  are  bowed  down  with  the  griefs  of  his  sufTering  country  and 
countrymen,  while  they  are  uplifted  by  his  trust  in  God  and  his 
unyielding  confidence  that  democracy  shall  in  some  way  endure. 
And  what  wonder,  when  of  all  men  he  realized  that  the  acceptance 
of  his  reasoning  and  his  conclusions  meant  war;  when  better  than 
any  other  he  knew  that  his  inauguration,  and  the  consequent  dis- 


46 

charge  of  official  duty  as  he  saw  it,  made  a  dreadful  war  inevitable 
and  immediate;  and  when  his  faith  in  the  justice  of  the  cause,  in 
the  great  mission  of  the  country,  and  in  the  overruling  guidance 
of  the  Almighty  was  of  the  kind  that  made  it  necessary  to  go  for- 
ward. In  the  light  of  all  this  he  must  be  read  much  and  often  to 
be  even  partially  understood.  Ano\  he  must  be  understood  by  his 
country  if  the  country  is  to  grow  in  strength,  for  it  was  given  to 
him  above  other  men  to  lay  the  legal  and  moral  foundations  of  its 
strength. 


THE  EVOLUTION   OF   EDUCATION   IN   THE 
UNITED   STATES 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  EDUCATION  IN  THE  UNITED 

STATES  » 

In  a  special  sense  education  has  had  a  development  in  America 
very  unlike  that  in  other  countries.  It  is  not  necessary  to  look  far 
to  find  the  reason.  It  is  in  the  inherent  qualities  of  the  people  who 
crossed  the  wide  sea  in  great  perils  to  make  new  homes  in  a  wilder- 
ness, and  it  is  closely  related  to  the  remote,  isolated,  and  independ- 
ent situation  which  they  came  to  occupy,  as  well  as  in  the  political 
and  religious  views  which  they  came  to  hold  and  the  relations  that 
at  first  they  sustained  to  the  home  governments  which  they  set 
up  for  themselves  in  their  new  homes.  One  may  rather  easily  see 
differences  which  distinguish  the  school  systems  of  the  American 
states  from  those  of  other  countries,  but  he  will  be  at  a  loss  to  see 
why  those  differences  came  to  be  or  to  understand  what  they  really 
mean,  unless  he  searches  out  the  history  and  inquires  into  the 
motives  of  the  people  who  were  responsible  for  them. 

The  first  settlers  in  America  had  to  depend  upon  themselves. 
They  doubtless  expected  that  whatever  was  accomplished  they 
would  have  to  work  out  for  themselves.  Certainly  all  the  known 
facts  lead  to  that  conclusion.  With  no  understanding  of  what  the 
circumstances  were  to  be  or  of  the  difficulties  they  must  encounter, 
they  must  have  reasoned,  in  a  brave  way,  that  they  were  going  to 
improve  their  situations,  according  to  their  understanding  of  what 
that  would  mean.  They  could  have  expected  very  little  from  gov- 
ernment, because  the  governments  of  which  they  were  subjects 
were  selfish  organizations,  having  enough  to  do  to  maintain  them- 
selves, and  with  little  interest  in  their  subjects  beyond  the  perpetua- 
tion or  extension  of  their  own  power;  and  also  because  they 
were  unreliable  if  not  rebellious  subjects.  The  Pilgrim  fathers 
came  to  the  bleak  Massachusetts  coast  mainly  for  freer  religious 
privileges.  They  had  fled  from  England  to  Holland  for  that 
reason,  and  had  come  from  Holland  to  America  to  prevent  their 
absorption  by  the  Dutch.  Apparently  they  would  not  have  been 
able  to  reach  America  but  for  the  aid  of  commercial  speculators 
who  received  their  compensation  out  of  many  years  of  labor  of 
those  whom  they  had  aided.    The  Puritans  who  settled  at  Massa- 


1  Written  June,  ion,  for  "The  Foundation  Library  for  Young  People. 

49 


50 

chusetts  Bay  came  to  America  because  of  differences  with  the 
English  government,  which  dominated  both  the  state  and  the 
church,  over  questions  relating  to  religious  and  political  matters. 
Doubtless  they  came  with  a  view  to  larger  freedom,  but  mainly 
because  they  were  in  the  minority  in  England;  and  it  is  clear 
enough  that  they  came  without  expecting  to  separate  themselves 
from  the  English  political  or  religious  systems,  and  also  without 
looking  for  support  from  either  of  them.  The  English  govern- 
ment was  indifferent  about  them,  but  was  naturally  interested  in 
English  colonization.  The  first  Dutch  settlers  came  in  the  employ 
of  the  Dutch  West  India  Company  for  the  furtherance  of  trade 
and  commerce. 

In  neither  case  was  any  fresh  educational  motive  or  any  new 
plan  about  schools  involved.  There  was  no  change  whatever  in 
the  thought  of  either  of  these  groups  of  early  colonists  about 
schools,  for  years  after  they  made  their  homes  in  the  new  world. 
They  intended  to  continue  doing  in  the  new  world  just  what  they 
had  been  doing  in  the  old  world  about  the  education  of  their  chil- 
dren. They  did  so  continue  until  their  democracy  grew  free  and 
forceful  and  exerted  its  quickening  influence  upon  education. 
Transition  over  the  sea  did  not  of  itself  create  in  these  people  a 
purpose  which  was  not  a  factor  in  their  plans  when  they  moved 
out  of  a  well-settled  environment  into  an  inchoate  and  unforned 
one.  The  Dutchmen  continued  to  be  Dutchmen,  and  the  English- 
men continued  to  be  Englishmen,  just  as  long  as  they  could.  They 
expected  to  continue  the  ways  of  Dutchmen  and  Englishmen  about 
weaving  and  farming  and  teaching  and  everything  else,  with  the 
possible  exception  that  they  hoped  to  have  their  own  way  a  little 
more  freely  about  managing  their  religious  matters  and  about  the 
forms  and  ceremonies  and  other  arrangements  in  their  churches. 
They  had  no  conception  whatever  of  the  new  religious,  political, 
industrial  or  physical  development  which  has  since  then  made 
America  what  it  is.  Many  writers,  not  excepting  many  historical 
writers,  have  said  much  in  apparent  oblivion  of  that  fact. 

So  the  first  American  settlers  did  the  altogether  natural  thing  so 
far  as  schools  were  concerned.  The  Pilgrims  did  nothing  for  at 
least  fifty  years  after  landing.  They  let  little  that  they  did  go 
unrecorded,  and  there  is  no  record  whatever  of  any  school  in  the 
Plymouth  Colony  until  after  1670.  The  Dutch  at  New  Amsterdam 
did  organize  schools  very  soon  after  there  were  enough  of  them 
there  to  set  up  any  kind  of  a  government  or  do  anything  else  that 


5i 

required  organizing  and  managing.  They  had  been  accustomed  in 
Holland  to  free  primary  schools  as  well  as  universities,  for  through 
the  successful  struggle  for  independence  from  Spain  they  had 
gained  some  of  the  attributes  of  democratic  self-government.  When 
they  settled  in  the  new  world  by  the  assistance  of,  and  to  carry  on 
the  business  of,  the  Dutch  West  India  Company,  and  also  to  give 
the  Netherland  Republic  a  colony  in  the  new  world,  they  were 
enjoined  to  set  up  schools  as  well  as  churches.  Schoolmasters  were 
a  part  of  the  governmental  establishment  of  Holland.  The  little 
colony  at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson  asked  that  schoolmasters  be 
sent  over,  and  they  were  sent  over.  They  organized  and  main- 
tained many  schools  in  the  first  generation  of  the  colony,  and  at 
least  one  of  those  schools  continues  to  this  day.  The  Puritans  at 
Massachusetts  Bay  organized  Harvard  College  before  they  did  an 
elementary  school.  That  too  was  logical.  It  was  setting  up  the 
English  plan.  That  plan  trained  the  favored  few  for  the  offices  of 
the  church  and  state,  which  were  all  one  in  New  England  as  in 
Old  England;  and  the  Puritans  were  content  if  the  rest  learned 
enough  to  read  the  Bible,  which  a  good  many  of  them  failed  to 
do.  For  long  years  a  great  many  never  acquired  the  power  to 
write  their  names.  There  is  no  evidence  of  primary  schools  in  the 
Massachusetts  colony  for  many  years  after  the  settlement.  A 
"  Latin  school "  was  set  up  soon  after  the  college  and  as  a  feeder 
to  it,  and  in  a  generation  or  two  other  "  Latin  schools,"  with  like 
motive  and  plan,  were  established  in  the  villages  that  sprung  up 
around  the  country;  but  generations  of  New  Englanders  had  to 
come  and  go  before  there  was  any  realization,  or  indeed  any  con- 
ception, of  the  independent  and  common  school,  managed  by  the 
civil  state  without  domination  by  the  church,  in  which  all  children 
had  equal  rights  and  identical  opportunities. 

WThile  the  little  light  of  democracy  was  flickering  in  the  rather 
inhospitable  new  world  socket,  the  teaching  of  the  children  in 
secular  as  well  as  religious  matters  was  left  to  the  churches.  The 
ministers  were  dominant  in  all  the  affairs  of  the  people.  They 
were  the  best  educated  men  in  the  community  and  had  peculiar 
standing  and  prerogative  through  the  interdependence  of  church 
and  state.  Their  influence  over  political  policies  was  decisive  and 
they  had  theories,  which  not  only  banished  those  who  differed  with 
them  from  the  colony  and  sent  them  to  the  wilderness  and  the 
savages,  but  also  consigned  their  souls  to  lakes  of  brimstone  which 
were  already  on  fire  and  which  they  confidently  predicted  would 


52 

burn  forever.  The  theories  of  these  men  being  widely,  almost  uni- 
versally, accepted  in  a  theocratic  civil  government,  their  influence 
was  decisive.  Of  course  they  were  men  of  lofty  character,  and  it 
is  more  than  possible  that  an  ignorant  people  had  better  be  under 
such  influences  than  weaker  ones.  In  any  event,  the  clergymen 
held  the  education  of  the  people  in  their  hands  from  the  beginning 
to  the  end  of  the  colonial  period  in  America. 

The  world  ideals  of  education  were  low,  and  surely  they  could 
not  be  otherwise  among  a  people  who  were  almost  wholly  without 
books,  who  had  to  struggle  with  all  their  might  for  bread,  and 
who  were  not  only  continually  harassed  and  many  of  them 
massacred  by  Indians,  but  were  also  engaged  in  constant  and 
bloody  wars  which  were  to  settle  whether  savagery  or  civilization, 
whether  the  English  or  the  French  kings  and  systems  of  govern- 
ment, or  whether  democracy  and  independence  should  prevail  in 
the  land.  All  through  this  long  and  trying  period  the  minister 
went  from  house  to  house  making  his  pastoral  calls  and  incidentally 
seeing  to  it  that  the  children  were  taught  to  read.  That  was  a 
duty  which  he  told  the  parents  devolved  upon  them.  If  they 
could  perform  it  and  did  not,  he  was  unsparing  in  his  censure  be- 
cause in  his  view  if  the  soul  of  the  child  were  lost  it  would  be 
their  fault.  If  they  could  not  do  it,  he  made  some  arrangement  to 
have  it  done  by  a  neighbor  if  that  were  practicable,  and  if  it 
were  not  he  probably  did  it  himself.  This  system  very  naturally 
grew  into  parish  schools  under  the  minister's  charge  and  often 
taught  by  him  or  his  assistant.  In  this  way  the  teacher  of  the 
school  often  came  to  be  an  assistant  to  the  minister.  Certainly  the 
teacher  was  appointed  by  the  minister  or  with  his  approval.  Of 
course,  whatever  was  done  in  the  school  must  have  his  approba- 
tion, for  it  had  to  conform  to  the  doctrines  and  theories  of  the 
church  over  which  he  presided  with  a  spiritual  purpose  and  an 
autocratic  power  which  no  ordinary  mortal  dared  question. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  these  parish  schools  were  worth- 
less. Of  course,  they  would  make  a  very  sorry  comparison  with 
our  modern  schools,  but  the  minister  was,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten, 
the  best  educated  man  in  the  village  and  often  he  was  a  classical 
scholar.  The  school  was  a  primitive  one,  to  be  sure,  but  very  often 
it  drilled  in  the  elements  of  power  so  thoroughly  that  the  child 
was  well  equipped  for  the  simple  life  he  was  to  lead.  And  the 
life  he  was  to  lead  was  one  which  often  did  much  to  sharpen  his 
perceptive  and  observing  faculties,   as   it  certainly   did  much  to 


53 

establish  industrial  habits  that  were  both  regular  and  educative. 
The  school  was  small  and  each  child  had  the  advantage  of  the 
close  attention  of  the  teacher  and,  almost  without  exception,  the 
teacher  was  a  young  man  or  woman  of  excellent  quality  and 
ambitious  purpose  who  was  directly  and  keenly  interested  in  the 
proficiency  and  well-being  of  each  child. 

But  these  schools  were  "  few  and  far  between."  They  were 
necessarily  limited  to  the  small  hamlets  that  had  grown  to  be  large 
enough  to  support  a  church.  There  was  not  much  living  far  from 
the  hamlets  and  villages  through  the  colonial  days  because  of  the 
danger  from  Indians  and  wild  animals.  The  whole  country  was  in 
danger  from  Indians  until  after  the  Revolution.  The  people  had 
to  live  together  to  protect  themselves,  and  of  course  it  would  have 
been  impossible  for  children  to  go  far  from  home  in  an  unsettled 
country  in  order  to  attend  school.  Moreover,  there  were  no  schools 
and  could  be  none  outside  of  the  little  settlements,  and  there  were 
no  safe  highways  for  travel.  So  the  colonial  schools  in  America 
were  very  few,  and  what  there  were  had  departed  very  little  from 
the  circumstances  and  character  of  the  schools  in  the  old  countries 
from  which  the  people  or  their  ancestors  had  come. 

This  was  so  not  only  because  the  habits  and  thinking  of  the 
people  were  very  fixed  and  slow  of  change,  but  more  particularly 
because  of  the  control  of  the  home  government  over  the  affairs 
of  the  colonies.  The  English  government  had  become  practically 
supreme  and  universal  in  all  the  colonies  before  the  Revolution, 
and  that  government  was  opposed  to  any  system  of  schools  for 
the  free  and  liberal  education  of  all  the  children  of  the  people. 
It  adhered,  of  course,  to  the  educational  policy  which  prevailed, 
and  for  practical  purposes  still  prevails,  in  England.  That  policy 
trained  the  children  of  the  favored  class  through  fitting  schools 
and  colleges  for  service  in  the  church  and  state,  or  with  a  view 
to  an  idle  sort  of  life  in  aristocratic  society,  and  in  very  simple 
primary  schools  it  taught  the  children  of  the  working  classes  to 
read  and  write,  but  it  was  distinctly  opposed  to  educating  the 
masses  very  liberally,  for  fear  that  they  would  learn  and  exact 
their  natural  rights.  That  policy  kept  the  poor  down  quite  as 
much  as  it  helped  the  rich  up,  and  it  was  insisted  upon  in  America 
quite  as  much  as  in  England.  There  was  little  trouble  in  carrying 
out  this  policy  in  New  England  where  the  English  feeling  and 
outlook  were  strong,  but  in  New  York  where  the  Dutch  influence 
still   prevailed,   there   was    frequent   conflict  between   the   Dutch 


54 

colonial  legislature  and  the  English  royal  governor  over  schools 
for  all  the  people.  Taking  all  things  together,  it  is  not  at  all 
strange  that  in  all  America  there  were,  prior  to  the  separation  from 
Great  Britain,  only  a  half  dozen  weak  colleges,  with  a  small  num- 
ber of  fitting  schools  or  "  academies  "  in  the  larger  or  more  pro- 
gressive towns  for  the  more  well-to-do,  and  a  weak  but  respectable 
primary  school  under  church  influences  in  the  villages  for  the  chil- 
dren of  the  masses. 

These  schools  had  no  organic  relationship  and  not  much  in 
common.  Each  was  wholly  dependent  upon  its  own  constituents 
and  a  law  unto  itself.  No  one  ever  thought  of  state  support  for 
elementary  schools.  The  home  government  gave  no  moneyed  sup- 
port to  colonial  schools.  A  colony  had,  in  several  instances,  given 
some  aid  to  a  colonial  college,  but  the  academies  and  primary 
schools  had  to  depend  upon  the  support  of  those  who  patronized 
them.  The  usual  rule  of  support  was  that  each  family  should  pay 
ratably  according  to  the  number  of  days  the  children  of  the  house- 
hold attended  the  school.  Indeed,  it  must  be  said  that  this  manner  of 
support  continued  for  many  years  after  independence  was  attained. 
There  was  no  acceptance  as  yet  of  the  doctrine  that  all  the  prop- 
erty of  the  people  is  pledged  to  educate  all  the  children  of  the 
people.  But  national  independence  was  to  change  all  this,  slowly 
and  hesitatingly  at  first  and  then  rapidly  and  forcefully. 

With  national  independence  there  came  a  new  national  feeling. 
The  long  war  which  gained  independence  had  pretty  nearly  over- 
thrown all  the  schools  that  were  in  operation,  but  it  had  also 
monopolized  the  thought  of  the  people.  All  thought  was  upon 
military  success;  and  the  hard  times,  enormous  debts  and  scarcity 
of  money,  made  plans  for  intellectual  progress,  for  the  time 
being,  impracticable.  But  with  independence  there  was  responsi- 
bility, and  the  people  were  nearly  all  of  a  race  that  rises  to  respon- 
sibility courageously.  With  a  buoyant  spirit  and  a  hopeful  out- 
look, they  realized  that  now  there  could  be  no  European  inter- 
ference with  their  educational  plans,  and  also  that  if  they  had  any 
they  would  have  to  make  them  themselves.  The  few  colleges  were 
reopened,  academies  were  rehabilitated  and  more  were  established, 
and  the  elementary  schools  began  to  take  shape  and  form  again. 
The  momentous  work  of  developing  a  national  system  of  schools 
was  begun. 

Of  course  it  had  to  go  slowly,  for  there  was  none  to  copy  after. 
It  is  doubtful  if  the  people  would  have  copied  any  other  system 


55 

anyway,  for  it  was  long  years  before  they  were  disposed  to  ap- 
prove anything  in  Europe,  no  matter  how  much  merit  it  might 
have.  But  there  was  no  system  in  Europe  which  could  be  adopted 
in  whole,  and  there  was  not  much  in  the  European  systems  that 
was  adaptable  to  American  ideas.  A  pure  democracy,  and  par- 
ticularly one  that  was  rather  conceited  and  bumptious,  had  to  have 
a  school  system  of  its  own.  To  evolve  such  a  system  it  had  to 
move  with  uncertain  steps,  make  mistakes  and  profit  by  them,  and 
be  guided  by  needs  that  could  not  be  anticipated.  Democratic  gov- 
ernment had  to  unfold  slowly  and  wait  long  before  it  could  know 
what  it  wanted  or  what  it  could  do  in  the  way  of  schools. 

It  is  now  nearly  a  century  and  a  half  since  independence  of  old 
world  government  was  declared.  About  one-half  of  that  period 
was  required  to  develop  schools  and  weld  them  together  into  some 
sort  of  a  coherent  system,  and  the  other  half  has  been  occupied 
in  making  that  system  responsive  to  the  continually  advancing 
ideas  of  people  who  have  been  steadily  enlarging  their  political 
power  and  have  been  intent  upon  using  it  to  suit  themselves.  Up 
to  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  aim  was  to  establish 
schools  within  reach  of  every  home,  and  the  homes  were  being 
made  upon  new  land,  not  only  in  the  old  states  but  in  the  new  states 
that  were  being  formed  all  the  way  to  the  Pacific  coast.  It  had 
become  more  and  more  safe  to  live  somewhat  widely  apart,  for 
the  Indians  had  been  subdued,  and  dangerous  animals  were  rapidly 
destroyed.  The  people  very  generally  appreciated  the  need  of 
schools,  but  of  course  there  were  many  who  did  not  feel  very 
keenly  about  it,  and  many  more  who  could  not  distinguish  between 
a  good  school  and  a  worthless  one.  The  oversight  of  the  minis- 
ters was  now  being  withdrawn  because  people  of  different  denomi- 
nations were  settling  the  new  territory  and  objection  was  being 
made  to  sectarian  influences  in  the  schools.  The  state  governments 
began  to  do  some  things  to  encourage  the  spread  of  schools, 
although  it  was  hard  for  them  to  realize  that  they  were  bound  to 
do  much  more  than  encourage  the  people  to  maintain  schools  by 
giving  them  a  little  money  and  sending  them  some  benevolent 
advice.  But  they  created  state  school  funds  and  distributed  them 
to  schools  on  the  basis  of  attendance  of  pupils  or  of  expenses 
incurred  by  local  communities.  This  involved  the  keeping  of 
records,  and  the  collating  and  publication  of  them,  and  comparisons 
appealed  to  local  pride  and  roused  public  sentiment.  School  dis- 
tricts were  formed  and  laws  relating  to  the  character  and  course 


56 

of  the  schools  began  to  be  enacted.  Long  before  1850  some  rather 
definite  steps  had  been  taken  to  assure  reasonable  qualifications 
on  the  part  of  the  teachers.  In  the  New  England  states  this  was 
done  in  a  very  indifferent  way  by  requiring  the  sanction  of  the 
"  school  committee  "  or  the  u  selectmen  "  of  the  town,  or  of  the 
minister  or  a  committee  of  ministers;  in  the  Middle  States  school 
commissioners  or  superintendents  issued  licenses  to  teachers  but 
often  these  licenses  were  issued  as  a  matter  of  favor,  political  or 
otherwise,  and  very  frequently  there  was  no  examination  and  no 
capacity  for  holding  an  examination.  The  whole  system  was 
crude,  but  still  sprung  up  wherever  settlers  established  their  homes. 
The  people  managed  the  affairs  of  these  schools  for  themselves  by 
meeting  annually  or  oftener  in  "  school  meetings  "  for  that  pur- 
pose and  by  appointing  trustees  or  directors  who  transacted  the 
business  of  the  districts  between  meetings.  In  this  way  the  people 
were  themselves  trained  in  public  business  and  their  interest  in 
affairs  of  common  concern  was  much  augmented.  By  this  means 
also  the  schools  became  knitted  together  into  a  system,  and  the 
relations  to  other  schools  which  they  came  gradually  to  sustain 
were  helpful  to  each.  The  affairs  of  all  the  schools  were  more 
and  more  regulated  and  the  whole  system  gathered  both  coherency 
and  enthusiasm. 

In  later  years  we  have  erected  more  imposing  schoolhouses, 
developed  a  more  highly  educated  and  uniformly  trained  teaching 
force,  increased  greatly  in  the  number  of  pupils,  and  so  created 
an  infinitely  more  substantial  school  system  than  we  had  through 
the  middle  years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  but  there  is  no  period 
in  the  educational  progress  of  this  or  any  other  country  more 
interesting  to  the  student  of  education,  and  none  reflecting  more 
honor  upon  the  people  concerned  in  it,  than  the  period  which 
witnessed  the  full  and  virile  maturity  of  the  old  order  of  schools 
and  saw  them  as  they  were  coming,  without  knowing  it,  to  the 
transformation  into  the  new  order.  Those  schools  were  both  the 
products  and  the  servants  of  a  primitive  but  still  a  high  and 
aggressive  civilization.  To  appreciate  either  that  civilization  or 
its  schools  one  must  remember  that  it  was  essentially  comprised 
of  people  of  Anglo-Saxon  blood,  with  strong  religious  feeling  and 
seasoned  industrial  habits,  breaking  a  new  land  and  bent  upon 
upbuilding  an  intellectual  empire  and  a  political  estate  which  should 
be  the  ample  proof  of  their  wisdom,  or  the  wisdom  of  their 
fathers,  in  moving  out  of  an  old  and  settled  civilization  into  a  new 


57 

one  which  they  could  shape  to  their  own  satisfaction.  Those 
people  were  essentially  an  agricultural  people.  Freed  from  the 
harassing  conditions  of  both  white  and  Indian  warfare,  they  had 
spread  over  large  areas  of  farming  and  forest  country  and  they 
had  been  made  hardy,  both  in  body  and  mind,  by  the  fact  that 
they  had  had  to  defend  themselves  against  dangerous  foes  and  get 
their  living  out  of  an  often  unconquerable  soil.  It  was  before 
the  time  of  much  railroad  development.  There  were  not  many 
attractive  towns  and  little  to  lead  the  most  ambitious  young  men 
and  women  to  think  that  they  could  better  their  situations  by  going 
away  from  home.  The  literature  they  read,  and  they  did  read, 
would  seem  dry  to  this  generation,  but  it  was  good  intellectual  and 
moral  pabulum,  and  there  was  little  in  it  to  disturb  the  attach- 
ments which  all  had  for  the  local  situation.  The  families  were 
large  and  there  were  live  boys  and  girls  in  plenty.  So  there  had 
to  be  schools  in  reach  of  every  house,  and  the  district  schoolhouse 
became  the  center  of  innumerable  activities  of  a  culturing  and 
stimulating  character. 

The  schoolhouses  by  the  roadside,  two  or  three  miles  apart, 
or  certainly  at  every  crossroad,  were  one-room,  weather-worn 
affairs.  At  the  time  of  which  we  are  speaking  they  were  ordinarily 
clapboarded  structures  painted  red;  and  so  gave  rise  to  the  phrase, 
"  the  little  red  schoolhouse,"  which  all  real  Americans  cherish. 
Sometimes  there  was  a  line  of  white  up  and  down  the  corners 
and  along  the  eaves,  in  response  to  the  natural  trend  toward  colo- 
nial architecture,  but  there  was  nothing  more  in  the  way  of  adorn- 
ment. But  no  one  would  be  struck  with  consternation  if  it  had 
never  been  painted  at  all,  or  if  that  had  been  done  so  long  ago  that 
no  vestige  of  color  remained.  Indeed,  not  infrequently  these 
houses  were  of  logs  or  stone.  It  made  little  difference,  for  the 
interest  was  in  what  was  doing  rather  than  in  the  building  in 
which  it  wTas  done.  The  old  house  was  not  very  often  replaced 
with  a  new  one  because  there  was  little  money  in  the  neighborhood 
and  old  things  were  made  to  do  until  they  could  do  no  longer.  So 
the  house,  inside  and  out,  bore  the  markings  of  divers  generations 
of  boys  and  girls  wrho  had  to  find  some  way  for  making  them- 
selves remembered  to  the  generations  that  were  to  come  after 
them. 

The  furnishings  were  plain  enough.  The  desks  for  both  teacher 
and  pupils  had  been  made  by  a  carpenter.  At  first  they  were  strung 
along  the  walls,  but  later  they  were  set  across  the  room  in  two  or 


58 

three  rows.  They  were  sufficiently  inclosed  to  cover  up  as  much 
skulduggery  as  boys  fell  into,  and  that  was  often  considerable. 
There  was  a  wooden  blackboard  standing  upon  a  rickety  easel  or 
hung  upon  the  wall.  A  wood-burning  stove  stood  in  the  middle 
of  the  room,  or  a  little  back  from  the  center,  and  in  the  corner 
there  was  a  mop,  a  broom,  and  a  "  patent  pail "  with  a  tin  dipper. 
The  boys  kept  up  the  fire  in  cold  weather,  and  as  a  reward  for 
being  "  good  "  the  favored  children  were  allowed  to  go  to  the 
nearest  neighbors  for  a  pail  of  water,  morning  and  afternoon,  to  the 
end  that  the  childish  thirst  might  not  become  fatal.  When  the  warm 
days  came  in  spring,  teacher  and  pupils  would  break  the  routine 
and  make  a  spurt  and  clean  the  schoolhouse. 

There  were  two  classes  of  teachers  who  taught  and  two  classes 
of  pupils  who  attended  these  schools.  In  the  summer  a  young 
woman,  commonly  the  half-grown  daughter  of  a  near-by  farmer, 
taught  primary  children,  and  in  the  winter  a  stalwart  young  man, 
very  likely  from  out  of  the  district,  taught  stalwart  boys  and 
buxom  girls.  The  teaching  in  the  summer  time  was  necessarily 
confined  to  the  "A  B  C's  "  and  a  little  printing  upon  a  slate.  The 
textbooks  were  few,  crude  and  unattractive,  but  the  whole  world 
is  relative  and  when  children  know  of  nothing  better  they  get  a 
good  deal  out  of  what  they  have.  In  the  winter  there  was  more 
serious  work  in  more  ways  than  one.  The  teacher  had  to  be  able 
to  teach  school  and  he  also  had  to  be  able  to  keep  school,  for  he 
had  pupils  who  were  mentally  alert  and  physically  strong.  The 
teaching  extended  into  every  subject  and  went  as  far  in  every 
subject  as  there  was  any  one  in  the  district  to  demand.  If  the 
teacher  could  be  balked  on  any  abstruse  proposition  in  the  natural 
or  mathematical  sciences,  he  needed  to  move  into  another  district, 
if  he  could  find  one  that  had  not  heard  of  his  misfortune,  and 
there  take  time  for  brushing  up.  But  he  had  other  than  intellectual 
pitfalls.  Every  teacher  who  took  a  new  school  for  the  winter  well 
knew  that  he  would  have  to  settle  it  very  soon  whether  he  could 
control  the  school.  Often  this  was  a  question  of  physical  strength. 
It  was  no  uncommon  thing  for  the  bigger  boys  to  combine  in  an 
attack  upon  the  teacher,  and  often  the  teacher  was  put  out  of  the 
schoolhouse  or  even  "  ducked "  in  a  snowbank.  So  the  school- 
teaching  not  only  called  for  young  men  and  women  who  were 
alert  and  forceful,  both  in  body  and  mind,  but  it  gave  them  the 
very  best  training  they  could  have  wished  to  have. 

But  the  school   itself  was  bv  no  means  all  there  was   of  the 


59 

i 

district  school.  It  was  the  center  of  all  sorts  of  neighborhood 
gatherings.  Prayer  meetings  were  held  there  nearly  every  week, 
and  it  was  wide  open  to  political  meetings  with  the  recurring 
campaigns.  Many  a  coming  statesman  got  his  first  real  practice  in 
expounding  the  political  gospel  in  the  district  schoolhouse,  and 
many  a  political  leader  learned  his  first  lessons  about  organization 
in  manipulating  the  affairs  of  the  country  school  district.  And 
there  were  "  spelling  bees,"  and  singing  schools,  and  debating 
societies,  and  whatever  else  could  provide  a  little  intellectual  ex- 
hilaration to  a  people  who  loved  it,  and  could  provide  some  excuse 
for  the  boys  and  girls  getting  together. 

All  in  all  the  district  school,  taken  in  connection  with  the  round 
of  work  at  home  in  which  every  member  of  the  family  had  to 
have  a  part,  provided  an  excellent  training  for  the  life  which  its 
patrons  were  to  live.  Indeed,  it  went  so  much  further  than  that 
in  a  great  many  cases  that  it  trained  not  a  few  men  for  leadership 
in  the  great  affairs  of  their  state  and  country.  Its  "  courses  of 
study  "  were  not  laid  out  very  scientifically ;  it  did  not  lead  to 
schools  above;  its  teaching  was  marked  by  more  substance  than 
"  methods  " •;  its  discipline  was  often  fitful,  and  punishments  were 
commonly  absurd  and  sometimes  brutally  severe;  but  it  trained 
boys  and  girls  for  the  life  they  were  to  lead,  and  it  inspired  many 
a  one  to  strong  advances  into  the  great  things  of  life ;  and,  on  the 
whole,  it  met  the  needs  of  an  exacting  people  living  in  pioneer  and 
primitive  conditions  much  better  than  the  schools  which  now  have 
so  much  in  the  way  of  sumptuous  embellishments  and  professional 
management  can  meet  the  requirements  of  the  more  complex 
civilization  of  later  days. 

Until  after  the  middle  of  the  last  century  there  was  little  apart 
from  the  simple  school  in  the  "  little  red  schoolhouse  "  for  nearly 
all  American  children.  The  schools  in  the  villages  were  not  unlike 
those  in  the  farming  districts  except  where  the  village  had  grown 
to  the  importance  and  dignity  of  establishing  an  "  academy."  Of 
these  there  came  to  be  a  few  in  the  important  towns  which  were 
somewhat  aided  by  small  state  appropriations  in  some  of  the  states, 
and  which  gave  some  advanced  instruction  in  mathematics  and 
began  instruction  in  the  ancient  languages.  They  were,  in  almost 
every  case,  fitting  schools  for  particular  colleges,  in  so  far  as 
they  prepared  pupils  for  college  at  all,  and  they  had  the  cordial 
sympathy  of  the  colleges  to  which  \hey  influenced  their  pupils  to 
go.     Some  of  the  academies  made  some  point  of  preparing  teach- 


6o 

ers,  and  in  some  cases  they  secured  state  aid  for  this  work.  But 
their  main  support  had  to  come  from  tuition  fees,  and  very  often 
they  were  obliged  to  augment  the  tuition  fees  by  instruction  in 
the  elementary  or  primary  branches.  These  institutions  were 
mainly  for  boys.  The  colleges  accepted  no  students  but  boys. 
As  an  offset  to  this  there  was  a  development  of  "  female  semi- 
naries "  by  teachers  who  thought  they  saw  an  opportunity  to  aid 
girls  and  make  a  living,  and  some  of  these  gained  considerable 
renown.  Here  and  there  in  the  cities  a  "  business  school "  was  set 
up  to  train  boys  in  business  methods,  and  some  of  these  attracted 
and  helped  considerable  numbers.  But  the  "  district  school  "  was 
the  main  reliance  of  more  than  nine-tenths  of  the  people  until  the 
rising  intelligence  and  the  advancing  democracy  of  the  nation 
broke  out  into  a  new  movement  of  national,  and  of  even  inter- 
national, significance. 

That  was  the  evolution  of  public  high  schools.  These  tax- 
supported  institutions,  rising  above  the  district  schools,  constituted 
the  popular  offset  to  the  more  aristocratic  if  not  more  exclusive 
academies.  The  academies  were,  in  the  nature  of  things,  aristo- 
cratic, even  though  they  did  not  wish  it  so.  There  were  but  few 
colleges,  and  only  the  sons  of  the  well-to-do  went  to  college  at  all. 
Institutions  that  fitted  for  college  were,  in  consequence  of  that  fact, 
exclusive.  Classical  learning  was  not  at  all  usual  and  institutions 
that  provided  it  were  necessarily  somewhat  exclusive.  And  the 
tuition  fees  were  also  exclusive.  In  a  word,  the  academies 
were  in  a  very  considerable  sense  appurtenances  of  the 
colleges:  they  had  been  pushed  down  among  the  people  by  the 
colleges  in  order  to  secure  students  for  themselves.  The  time 
came  when  all  this  was  a  little  irritating  to  the  masses  of 
people  who  began  to  look  for  a  means  of  providing  for  their 
own  children  the  training  which  their  more  well-to-do  neighbors 
found  for  their  children  in  the  academies  because  they  were  able 
to  pay  for  it.  They  found  it  in  high  schools  supported  and  man- 
aged by  the  public  the  same  as  the  elementary  schools.  They  were 
"  common  schools  "  just  like  the  district  schools,  and  they  opened 
their  advantages  to  girls  as  well  as  boys.  There  was  vehement 
opposition  in  many  quarters  to  charging  such  an  expense  upon  the 
public  treasury,  but  it  was  soon  established  that  it  was  within  the 
political  and  constitutional  power  of  the  people  to  do  this  if  they 
wished,  and  before  long  a  high  school  found  a  home  in  every  con- 
siderable town  or  village.    It  caused  the  overthrow  of  many  of  the 


6i 

academies,  because  the  high  schools  ordinarily  became  quite  as 
efficient  as  the  academies,  and  not  many  people  would  pay  for 
instruction  when  they  could  get  quite  as  good  without  charge. 
Many  academies  became  the  public  high  schools  of  their  towns  or 
districts.  But  good  high  schools,  which  fitted  for  college  and  also 
for  life  work  as  well  or  even  better  than  the  more  exclusive  insti- 
tutions had  done  before,  came  into  being  in  every  considerable 
community  without  reference  to  whether  an  academy  had  been 
there  before  or  not. 

The  results  were  many  and  decisive.  Education  was  uplifted 
throughout  the  country.  The  high  schools  reacted  in  a  most 
stimulating  way  upon  the  elementary  schools.  Their  pupils  began 
to  look  forward  to  going  to  the  high  school  as  they  had  not 
thought  of  going  to  the  academy,  and  their  teachers  were  forced 
to  the  necessity  of  systematic  courses  and  exact  teaching  which 
would  prepare  their  pupils  to  sustain  themselves  in  the  high  schools. 
There  was  a  new  "  yardstick  "  above  by  which  the  work  of  the 
elementary  schools  must  be  measured. 

The  high  schools  became  "  connecting  links "  in  making  an 
American  system  of  education.  Before  they  came  there  had  been 
an  hiatus,  a  break  in  the  road,  which  prevented  the  far  greater 
number  of  children  from  going  beyond  the  elementary  schools. 
The  academies  did  not  reach  the  masses.  In  four-fifths  of  the 
territory  there  were  no  academies;  in  the  one-fifth  they  were  not 
free  schools,  as  in  the  very  nature  of  things  they  could  not  be. 
Of  course,  free  schools  of  grade  sufficiently  advanced  to  prepare 
for  college  or  for  a  stronger  part  in  a  manner  of  life  that  was 
steadily  becoming  more  complex,  had  tremendous  effects  upon 
the  educational  system  and  upon  the  thinking  of  the  people. 

One  of  those  effects  was  to  increase  the  attendance  at  the  col- 
leges and  create  more  colleges.  That  in  turn  developed  real  uni- 
versities. There  was  not  a  real  university  in  the  United  States 
before  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  wTas  well  ad- 
vanced, although  there  were  several  institutions  which  called  them- 
selves such.  The  difficulty  was  that  the  people  of  the  country  were 
not  yet  ready  to  support  a  real  university,  and  educational  senti- 
ment in  America  was  possibly  not  yet  very  conversant  with  what 
must  be  the  attributes  of  institutions  that  had  good  right  to  use 
the  name. 

The  high  school  evolution  went  further  than  anything  else  tq 
create  a  new  type   of   university,   a   really   democratic   university 


62 


as  well  as  a  real  university,  in  the  United  States.  That  was  the 
state  university.  Of  course,  there  were  so-called  state  universities 
in  the  newer  western  states  before  the  high  school  movement 
amounted  to  much.  It  was  usual  for  the  newly  formed  states  to) 
provide  for  a  state  university  in  their  constitutions.  But  they 
amounted  to  nothing  more  than  fair  colleges,  and  sometimes  to 
nothing  more  than  a  fair  high  school,  until  energized  and  expanded 
by  the  conjuncture  of  the  high  school  evolution  with  federal  aid 
to  higher  learning  provided  by  the  Congressional  land  grant  act 
of  1862.  These  two  helps  coming  together  worked  out  great 
universities,  managed  and  supported  by  the  public,  in  all  the  newer 
states.  Of  course  they  shaped  their  work  to  meet  the  thinking 
and  minister  to  the  vocations  of  the  people.  And  of  course  they 
shocked  the  classically  hidebound  leaders  of  the  older  and  endowed 
and  more  exclusive  colleges  of  the  East.  All  the  same,  they  went 
on  proving  that  learning  might  well  concern  itself  with  things  that 
related  to  modern  times  and  that  might  uplift  living  men  and 
women  by  helping  them  to  do  better  the  work  they  would  have  to 
do.  They  admitted  students  upon  their  diplomas  from  the  high 
schools.  Some  students  failed  in  their  work,  but  they  had  the 
"  chance  "  which  Americans  love ;  if  they  failed  it  was  their  own 
fault;  certainly  there  was  no  exclusiveness  or  favoritism,  no  keep- 
ing students  out  because  they  could  not  pay  tuition  fees,  or  retain- 
ing students  when  they  could  not  do  their  work  simply  because 
they  could  pay  fees.  Then,  too,  the  state  universities  charted  out 
the  work  of  the  high  schools,  shaped  their  courses,  and  inspected 
their  teaching.  Rapidly  they  trained  teachers  for  all  the  schools 
below  them  and  particularly  for  the  high  schools.  They  "  ap- 
proved" high  schools  which  met  their  standards,  and  local  pride 
required  the  high  schools  at  least  to  advance  to  the  point  where 
they  would  be  "  approved "  by  the  universities.  The  endowed 
universities  had  to  bend  to  all  this,  or  expect  that  great,  strong, 
free  universities  would  be  established  within  a  few  years  and  not 
many  miles  away.  Indeed,  that  has  been  done  in  some  cases,  so 
the  educational  system. has  been  made  continuous;  not  only  four 
more,  but  eight  more,  grades  above  the  elementary  schools  have 
been  added  to  it ;  the  educational  system  has  been  made  much  freer, 
both  pedagogically  and  financially,  from  bottom  to  top,  and  in  the 
older  states  as  well  as  in  the  newer  ones. 

There  is  another  factor  than  the  evolution  of  high  schools  which, 
at  least  at  the  beginning,  was  peculiar  to  America,  and  has  had  an 


63 

uplifting  and  consolidating  influence  upon  American  education. 
That  is  the  superintendence  by  experts.  It  grew  out  of  the  state 
aid  and  the  support  by  local  taxation.  Where  the  money  of  the 
people  went  their  management  had  to  go.  Schools  supported  by  the 
public  had  not  only  to  meet  public  sentiment,  but  they  had  to  be 
worthy  of  the  public.  This  could  be  assured  only  through  the 
oversight  of  professional  superintendents  with  very  considerable 
powers.  The  system,  as  to  states,  was  commenced  in  the  State  of 
New  York  in  1812,  by  the  creation  of  the  office  of  state  superin- 
tendent of  common  schools;  and  as  to  cities  it  was  inaugurated 
in  the  city  of  Buffalo  in  1837  by  the  creation  of  the  office  of  city 
superintendent  of  schools.  There  are  now. such  officers  in  all  the 
states  and  in  practically  all  the  cities  and  larger  villages,  but  it 
was  not  until  long  after  the  middle  of  the  century  that  they  came 
to  have  sufficient  authority  to  be  efficient.  They  have  much  to  do 
with  certifying,  employing,  and  supervising  the  teachers;  with 
making  the  courses  of  study,  and  with  the  progress  of  pupils 
through  a  systematic  course  of  study  until  a  definite  goal  is 
reached.  It  must  be  said  too  that  this  system  of  professional 
supervision  has  been  extended,  with  more  or  less  completeness, 
into  the  rural  districts.  Indeed,  there  was  a  county  or  township 
supervision  of  the  schools  at  a  very  early  day — in  New  York  as 
early  as  1795  —  but  it  was  upon  the  business  rather  than  the 
educational,  or  at  least  the  professional,  side  of  their  activities. 
In  more  recent  years  nearly  all  the  states  have  made  serious  efforts 
to  give  to  the  country  schools  the  advantages  of  professional  super- 
vision which  the  cities  and  towns  enjoy.  Nothing  has  contributed 
to  the  upbuilding  and  the  efficiency  of  individual  schools,  or  indi- 
vidual systems  of  schools,  and  also  to  the  uniform  excellence, 
solidarity,  and  comprehensiveness  of  the  whole  educational  system 
of  a  state,  so  much  as  this  management  by  the  most  experienced 
teachers  and  the  most  successful  professional  administrators. 

Next  to  the  growth  of  high  schools  and  the  consequent  growth 
of  colleges  and  universities,  and  the  very  complete  organization 
of  the  system  of  professional  supervision,  American  education  is 
probably  indebted  to  the  multiplicity  of  voluntary  educational  as- 
semblies. We  are  a  people  who  love  to  travel,  and  the  railroad 
companies  are  not  at  all  adverse  to  the  gratification  of  our  passion. 
Indeed,  if  we  show  any  lethargy  in  that  direction,  they  are  quick 
to  stimulate  us  with  attractive  propositions.  Not  only  do  the 
teachers  in  every  city  and  county  have  organizations  which  meet 


64 

regularly,  but  in  every  state  there  is  a  teachers'  association  which 
holds  annual  meetings,  calling  together  from  one  thousand  to 
five  thousand  teachers,  and  the  National  Education  Association 
meets  every  year  with  an  attendance  of  from  five  thousand  to 
thirty  thousand  teachers.  An  American  teacher  thinks  nothing  of 
traveling  a  thousand  or  three  thousand  miles  to  attend  an  educa- 
tional convention.  The  longer  the  distance  the  better  the  teacher 
is  suited,  so  far  as  the  fatigue  or  discomfort  of  travel  may  be 
concerned.  The  expense  is  provided  for  long  in  advance  and 
cheerfully  paid  for  the  sake  of  the  knowledge  of  the  country  and 
the  enthusiasm  of  the  large  crowds  and  the  stimulus  of  the  leading 
teachers  who  speak  at  the  convention. 

It  would  be  wholly  unjust  to  imagine  that  these  meetings  — 
local,  state  and  national,  are  mainly  for  the  mere  love  of  journey- 
ing. That  is  of  course  a  factor  but  it  is  not  the  controlling  factor. 
The  larger  factor  is  the  conscientious  purpose  to  lose  no  advan- 
tage which  will  contribute  to  the  knowledge  and  efficiency  of  the 
teacher.  It  has  been  drilled  into  teachers  that  they  can  not  get 
to  or  keep  at  the  front  of  the  teaching  service  unless  they  attend 
these  conventions  and  see  and  hear  the  leading  teachers.  In  the 
older  states  they  are  sometimes  a  little  disposed  to  question  it,  but 
in  all  the  newer  states  they  never  doubt  it.  In  all  the  states  west 
of  the  Allegheny  mountains  it  is  usual  to  see  three  or  four  thou- 
sand teachers  at  a  state  meeting.  They  pay  their  dollars  and 
engage  the  most  interesting  speakers  in  the  country,  and  they 
come  early  and  stay  to  the  end  that  they  may  not  lose  a  word. 

These  voluntary  meetings  of  great  numbers  stir  enthusiasm 
and  disseminate  ideas  in  a  marvelous  way.  Each  city  is  bound  to 
have  the  latest  ideas,  and  each  state  does  what  it  thinks  it  can  do 
to  keep  from  getting  behind  any  other  state.  As  a  result,  self- 
energizing  and  self-expanding  vigor  permeates  the  whole  educa- 
tional system.  And  out  of  this,  quite  as  much  as  out  of  the  intel- 
lectual or  professional  or  industrial  demands  of  the  country,  there 
have  grown  schools  of  every  kind  and  of  every  grade. 

No  sketch  of  American  education  would  be  at  all  comprehensive 
which  failed  to  notice  the  sharp  advance  which  has  been  made  in 
the  last  quarter  century  in  uplifting  and  multiplying  the  learned 
professions.  In  that  time  most  of  the  states  have  established  both 
the  preliminary  educational  requirements  which  candidates  for  the 
professions  must  meet  before  being  allowed  to  enter  professional 
schools,  and  also  the  professional  courses  which  they  must  com- 


fit 

[        U  K  v        ; 

plete  before  being  allowed  to  enter  the  State  r>ro.ft^w^^Kanii- 
nations.  The  trend  in  recent  years  has  been  overwKelrhTngly  in 
the  direction  of  training  in  professional  schools  rather  than  in  the 
offices  of  practitioners.  Indeed,  the  demand  of  recent  years  has 
been  for  training  in  schools  that  are  taught  by  paid  teachers  who 
are  not  engaged  in  professional  practice  rather  than  in  schools 
carried  on  by  practitioners.  This  has  given  decided  impetus  to 
professional  schools  and  produced  unprecedented  growth  in  reve- 
nues, faculties,  equipment  and  students.  All  the  leading  universi- 
ties now  have  professional  schools  of  nearly  every  kind  that  are 
very  well  provided  for;  and  independent  professional  schools,  of 
more  or  less  worth,  have  sprung  up  in  all  the  centers 
of  population.  Out  of  it  all  there  has  arisen  the  imperative  neces- 
sity of  regulating  and  approving  schools  that  are  believed  to  be 
capable  of  providing,  and  show  the  disposition  to  enforce,  a  train- 
ing for  each  of  the  professions  which  the  state  can  think  consistent 
with  the  progress  of  its  intellectual  and  professional  life  and  the 
protection  of  its  people  against  charletans  and  scamps ;  and  of  out- 
lawing and  prohibiting  schools  that  seek  the  money  of  the  people 
without  a  return  which  the  state  can  accept  as  a  reasonable  com- 
pliance with  what  it  is  bound  to  demand. 

The  ambition  of  the  young  men  of  the  United  States,  and  to 
some  extent  of  the  young  women  also,  to  enter  the  learned  pro- 
fessions, seems  to  be  almost  universal.  It  is  clear  enough  that 
it  is  an  ambition  which  ought  to  be  curbed  and  directed,  for  the 
professions  are  overcrowded,  and  many  who  manage  to  enter 
them  would  find  happier  and  more  profitable  employment  in  an 
industrial  or  commercial  vocation.  In  very  recent  years  much  has 
been  done  in  the  best  educational  states  to  guide  pupils  in  the 
public  schools,  and  others,  into  industrial  employments,  or  at  least 
to  provide  the  facilities  for  industrial  training  and  to  correlate 
them  with  the  ordinary  schools,  so  that  there  need  be  no  excuse 
for  the  mistakes  in  choosing  life  work  which  a  great  many  have 
manifestly  made.  Schools  for  general  industrial  training  in  em- 
ployments where  many  workmen  work  together  and  use  much 
machinery,  and  also  schools  which  train  workmen  for  individual 
employments  carried  on  by  their  own  unaided  hands  and  with 
their  own  tools,  and  for  classes  of  work  in  which  both  girls  and 
boys  are  interested,  have  been  authorized  in  the  public  school 
systems  of  many  states,  and  in  some  cases  they  have  been  encour- 
aged by  direct  state  appropriations.    The  central  idea  of  this  new 


66 

movement  in  industrial  education  must  be  distinguished  from  that 
of  the  manual  training  movement  of  a  generation  ago.  The  manual 
training  movement  was  regarded  as  an  aid  to  general  culture, 
or  its  motive  was  the  quickening  of  intellectual  acumen  and  grasp ; 
while  the  motive  of  the  new  movement  is  nothing  short  of  the 
training  of  workmen  who  will  do  things  with  their  hands.  Of 
course  the  training  of  their  heads  is  not  neglected,  and  it  is  as- 
sumed that  the  training  of  their  hands  will  train  their  heads  also; 
but  the  point  is  to  train  skilled  workmen  in  the  confidence  that 
that  will  both  enlarge  the  happiness  of  the  people  and  the  prosperity 
of  the  country. 

From  what  has  now  been  said,  any  boy  or  girl  ought  to  be  able 
to  see  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  make  serious  mistakes  or  to  go 
ahead  blindly  in  the  matter  of  choosing  and  preparing  for  life 
work.  The  facilities  are  all  at  hand,  or  will  be  by  the  time  the 
candidate  is  ready  for  them.  All  he  has  to  do  is  to  take  the  next 
step  by  thinking  about  what  he  would  like  to  do  and  by  laying  hold 
of  the  helps  that  are  close  at  hand  and  that  lead  in  the  direction 
of  his  tastes.  In  a  little  time  he  will  know  better  what  to  do  and 
he  will  find  other  aids.  By  the  time  he  comes  to  the  place  where 
the  roads  part  he  will  be  likely  to  know  whether  he  wants  to  go 
into  law,  or  medicine,  or  civil  engineering,  or  electrical  engineering, 
or  cabinet-making,  or  plumbing,  or  a  cotton  factory,  or  a  watch 
factory,  or  a  locomotive  works,  or  something  else.  He  can  aid 
his  choice  by  looking  around  and  peering  into  things  and  talking 
with  people.  And  when  he  has  acquired  the  feeling  that  he  would 
like  and  can  succeed  at  some  particular  thing,  he  can  easily  find 
out  how  long  it  will  take  and  how  much  it  will  cost  to  prepare 
himself  for  that  vocation.  The  teachers  in  the  schools  are  only 
too  glad  to  converse  with  pupils  about  such  matters ;  the  managers 
of  factories  are  ordinarily  very  considerate  in  affording  informa- 
tion to  young  inquirers  who  go  about  it  in  a  civil  and  polite  way; 
and  the  presidents  and  registrars  of  universities,  colleges  and 
schools  will  fall  off  their  stately  chairs  rather  than  disencourage 
prospective  students  from  coming  to  them. 

Perhaps  it  ought  to  be  said  that  the  men  and  women  succeed 
most  completely  in  the  long  run,  who  lay  the  broadest  foundations 
early  in  life.  So  it  may  really  be  a  gain  to  go  through  college 
before  taking  a  course  in  a  professional  school,  even  when  one 
may  enter  the  professional  school  without  first  going  through  col- 
lege.    Even  though  one  feels  that  he  can  not  afford  the  expense, 


67 

it  may  be  better,  if  he  is  in  good  health,  to  borrow  the  money 
and  secure  its  payment  by  an  insurance  policy  upon  his  life, 
or  it  may  be  better  to  take  time  to  earn  the  necessary  money, 
before  going  to  college  or  during  the  college  course,  than  to  go 
without  it.  While  there  are  plenty  of  men  and  women  who  have 
succeeded  much  more  strongly  without  going  to  college  than  many 
have  who  have  graduated  from  college,  the  presumptions  are  alto- 
gether in  favor  of  the  college  training  for  one  who  is  in  real 
earnest  about  making  the  most  of  himself.  But  it  is  better  to  look 
the  ground  all  over,  send  for  the  catalogs  of  the  schools  and 
perhaps  visit  them  and  see  what  they  are  doing,  before  committing 
one's  self  to  a  plan  that  means  so  much  time  and  effort  and  money. 

Not  only  do  schools  of  every  grade  and  for  every  purpose  invite 
the  attendance  of  pupils,  but  there  are  schools  which  instruct  pupils 
by  correspondence  and  without  expecting  their  attendance.  No 
one  would  claim  that  a  pupil  is  likely  to  progress  in  this  way  as 
satisfactorily  as  by  attendance,  but  such  as  can  not  attend  may 
accomplish  a  great  deal  by  correspondence.  One  may  have  a  choice 
of  courses  in  these  schools,  then  the  lessons  are  assigned  and 
questions  answered  by  letter,  and  examinations  held  upon  papers 
sent  by  mail.  It  is  not  the  best  way  to  get  an  education,  but  an 
earnest  seeker  after  knowledge  may  find  a  good  deal  of  it  in  this 
way. 

The  actual  extent  of  the  American  educational  system  can  only 
be  shown  by  statistics,  and  the  figures  are  so  large  that  it  is  difficult 
to  appreciate  them.  In  the  common  schools  of  the  United  States 
there  were  employed,  in  the  year  1908-9,  506,040  teachers.  That 
is,  there  were  more  teachers  in  the  public  schools  than  there  were 
people  in  the  cities  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  and  Omaha,  Nebraska, 
taken  together. 

There  were  in  the  public  elementary  schools  16,643,149  pupils, 
and  in  the  private  elementary  schools  1,316,900  pupils.  There  were 
in  the  public  high  schools,  863,026  pupils,  and  in  the  private  acad- 
emies, 171,801  pupils.  And  there  were  in  the  public  higher  insti- 
tutions, including  universities,  colleges,  and  professional  schools 
of  all  kinds,  152,768  students,  and  in  the  endowed  higher  institu- 
tions 178,647  students.  Taken  together,  there  were  in  the  elemen- 
tary schools  17,960,049  pupils,  in  the  secondary  schools  1,034,827 
pupils,  and  in  the  higher  institutions  331,4*5  students.  There  were 
in  public  institutions  17,658,943  pupils  and  students,  and  in  the 
private  or  endowed  institutions  there  were  1,667,348.    Of  each  one 


68 

hundred,  92.9  are  in  the  elementary  schools,  5.3  in  the  high  schools, 
and  1.7  in  the  advanced  institutions.  About  1  in  5  of  all  the  people 
of  the  country  are  in  the  elementary  schools;  about  1  in  90  are 
attending  high  schools ;  and  about  1  in  270  are  going  to  an  insti- 
tution of  higher  grade.  The  attendance  upon  all  American  schools 
in  the  year  was   19,326,291   different  persons. 

To  see  what  a  host  this  means,  let  us  say  that  if  all  the  college 
students  were  to  march  in  a  procession,  in  pairs,  and  three  feet 
apart,  the  line  would  extend  more  than  94  miles,  and  farther  than 
from  New  York  to  Philadelphia.  If  the  pupils  in  the  high  schools 
were  to  march  four  abreast  they  would  make  a  procession  147  miles 
long  and  extending  farther  than  from  Philadelphia  to  Washington. 
If  the  children  in  the  elementary  schools  were  to  march  four  abreast 
and  three  feet  apart,  the  line  would  extend  2551  miles.  And  if  all 
who  are  attending  school  in  the  United  States  were  to  form  a 
grand  procession,  four  abreast  and  three  feet  apart,  it  would  be 
grand  indeed,  for  the  line  would  extend  2745  miles,  or  about  as 
far  as  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco. 

To  show  the  trend  in  American  education  it  may  be  said  that 
the  percentage  of  pupils  preparing  for  college  in  the  high  schools 
has  been  steadily  declining  in  recent  years.  Twenty  years  ago 
about  15  in  every  100  pupils  in  the  public  high  schools  intended  to 
go  to  college,  while  now  only  5  in  100  are  planning  to  do  so.  The 
same  fact  appears  in  the  private  academies,  although  the  percent- 
ages that  are  naturally  larger.  Twenty  years  ago  27  in  every  100 
pupils  in  the  private  secondary  schools  were  preparing  for  college, 
while  now  there  are  only  16  in  100  who  are  doing  so.  Very  possibly 
the  percentages  have  been  affected  by  the  extension  of  the  second- 
ary schools  into  new  territory,  and  into  classes  of  work  that  were 
not  formerly  carried  on  in  the  high  schools ;  but  in  any  event  it  is 
clear  enough  that  the  American  secondary  schools  are  not  in  any 
exclusive  sense  college  preparatory  schools.  It  must  be  said,  how- 
ever, that  of  all  who  enter  the  high  schools,  both  public  and  private, 
about  10  in  100  graduated  twenty  years  ago  and  about  12  complete 
the  course  now.  Of  those  who  graduated  from  all  the  middle 
schools,  about  35  in  100  went  to  college,  and  the  number  has  not 
varied  materially  in  twenty  years.  But  the  rather  significant  fact 
appears  that  the  percentage  of  graduates  from  public  high  schools 
who  go  to  college  has  been  steadily  increasing  in  the  last  twenty 
years,  while  the  percentage  of  graduates  of  private  academies  who 
go  to  college  has  been  as  steadily  decreasing.     It  is  not  possible  to 


69 

follow  this  interesting  phase  of  education  further  in  such  a  paper 
as  this,  but  surely  we  have  seen  enough  to  make  it  clear  that 
democracy,  the  power  and  the  intelligen.ce  of  the  common  people, 
is  working  its  way  out  in  America  as  it  is  in  no  other  country  in 
the  world. 

It  could  not  be  otherwise,  for  the  government,  the  dominating 
and  controlling  influence  in  our  schools,  is  thoroughly  democratic. 
We  have  spoken  of  the  professional  superintendence  which  the 
laws  of  the  states  have  extended  over  all  the  public  schools,  but  no 
one  will  imagine  that  this  is  at  all  likely  to  overthrow,  or  to  come 
into  any  conflict  with,  the  lay  element  in  saying  what  they  shall  do. 
The  people  say  what  they  shall  do  and  pay  for  having  it  done,  and 
the  professional  experts  say  how  it  may  be  done  best,  and  look 
after   getting    it    done. 

In  America  the  sovereign  educational  authority  is  with  the  states. 
Nothing  was  said  about  it  in  the  Federal  Constitution,  and  no  au- 
thority over  schools  has  ever  been  delegated  by  the  states  to  the 
United  States.  The  Federal  government  has  made  many  and  noble 
gifts  to  education,  and  has  sometimes  prescribed  the  conditions 
upon  which  they  might  be  secured:  it  provides  for  training  men 
for  the  army  and  navy,  for  teaching  the  Indians  and  other  depend- 
ent classes  in  the  territories  and  the  island  possessions  over  the 
seas,  but  it  has  never  invaded  the  exclusive  power  of  the  states 
to  educate  their  own  people  as  they  see  fit.  The  states  legislate 
upon  the  educational  instrumentalities  which  the  people  demand. 
This  legislation  is  imperative  because  the  public  school  system 
rests  upon  the  power  of  taxation,  and  that  is  a  sovereign  power, 
and  the  state  governments  alone  exercise  that  power  for  the  sup- 
port of  common  schools  in  the  several  states. 

But  the  legislation  of  the  states  reflects  the  popular  feeling  and 
the  common  progress,  and  the  states  race  with  each  other  to  keep 
in  the  lead  upon  a  matter  which  has  come  to  be  very  nearly  a 
universal  passion  in. the  United  States.  And,  however  much  the 
powers  to  do  things  in  connection  with  the  schools  must  proceed 
from  the  governments  of  the  states,  those  powers  are  exercised  by 
the  people  in  their  local  assemblages  or  by  officers  chosen  by  them, 
or  appointed  by  officials  chosen  by  them,  at  popular  elections.  The 
school  government  is  the  most  democratic  government  in  America 
or  in  the  world.  Very  commonly  the  constitutions  of  the  states  re- 
quire the  state  legislature  to  see  to  it  that  there  is  an  adequate 
system  of  schools  "wherein  all  the  children  of  the  state  may  be 


7° 

educated."  Under  these  provisions  the  system  of  education  be- 
comes a  state  system,  and  is  not  left  to  the  mercies  of  the  city, 
county,  or  township  authorities.  All  the  territory  of  the  state  is 
divided  into  districts  which  are  made  to  conform  to  the  circum- 
stances of  population.  Ordinarily  they  are  very  small :  in  many 
states  there  are  ten  or  twelve  thousand  of  them ;  but  the  cities  are 
school  districts  too,  and  so  they  may  be  very  large  or  at  least  very 
populous.  In  the  case  of  cities,  the  school  district  is  governed  by 
a  board  of  education,  sometimes  elected  by  the  people  but  more 
commonly  appointed  by  the  mayor,  not  because  such  appointment 
is  a  city  function  but  for  convenience  and  because  the  appointments 
can  not  be  made  by  so  many  people  without  mixing  the  matter 
with  party  politics  or  municipal  business,  and  it  is  desirable  that 
they  shall  be  made  by  some  general  officer  who  has  been  chosen 
by  the  people  to  a  conspicuous  and  responsible  position.  In  the 
country  the  schools  are  governed  by  trustees  or  a  board  of  edu- 
cation chosen  by  the  people  at  annual  school  meetings,  where  it 
is  practicable  to  do  it  in  that  way;  or,  where  it  is  not,  the  choice 
is  made  at  an  election  held  apart  from  an  election  for  other  pur- 
poses. In  the  same  way  the  taxes  are  levied  for  buildings,  the 
salaries  of  teachers,  and  all  the  ordinary  expenses  of  the  schools. 
The  government  of  the  schools  is  therefore  wholly  in  the  hands 
of  the  people  so  long  as  they  show  a  disposition  to  maintain  suit- 
able schools,  as  they  ordinarily  do.  They  may  elaborate  their 
schools  indefinitely.  It  is  only  where  they  are  indifferent  that  the 
state  steps  in  and  insists  upon  the  maintenance  of  schools  which 
conform  reasonably  to  the  requirements  of  the  state  constitution. 
The  local  school  authorities  manage  the  business  of  the  schools 
just  as  they  please,  so  long  as  they  manage  it  honestly  and  with  in- 
tent to  realize  the  purpose  of  the  laws  under  which  they  exist.  They 
appoint  such  teachers  as  they  like,  so  long  as  they  name  those  who 
have  the  educational  proficiency  exacted  by  the  laws  and  the  state 
system  of  education.  And  the  requirements  and  limitations  of  the 
laws  only  express  the  intelligence  and  the  intent  of  the  majority  of 
the  people  of  the  state.  So  it  may  truly  be  said  that  the  American 
system  of  education  is  distinctly  a  unique  national  system  and 
that  it  is  particularly  expressive  of  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  the 
masses. 

Of  course  there  are  educational  instrumentalities  outside  of  the 
schools,  and  of  course  many  of  the  schools  carry  their  activities 
far  beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  school  grounds.    We  are  a  nation 


7i 

of  readers,  and  libraries  in  great  numbers,  and  some  of  vast  pro- 
portions, minister  to  our  demands  for  information  and  for  the 
literary  treasures  of  the  world.  The  daily,  weekly,  and  monthly 
periodicals  and  magazines  cater  to  our  tastes,  both  good  and  bad. 
We  love  the  public  assemblage  and  are  fond  of  the  public  speaker. 
We  are  interested  in  music  and  the  drama.  We  are  a  nation  of 
travelers,  and  have  little  difficulty  in  finding  ways  for  getting  about, 
both  at  home  and  abroad.  All  these  instrumentalities,  associated 
with  a  remarkably  active  life  in  an  exceedingly  complex  civiliza- 
tion, train  the  intelligence  and  exert  their  influence  upon  the  char- 
acter of  the  people.  But  the  schools  loom  above  all  the  rest  in 
importance,  for  they  prepare  the  ground  and  give  the  opportunity 
to  all  the  others. 

The  American  system  of  education  has  been  evolved  out  of  the 
intellectual  progress  of  an  active,  ambitious,  self-conscious  people. 
That  people  has  become  great  in  numbers  by  accessions  from  all 
the  peoples  of  the  earth,  and  their  educational  system  has  received 
many  valuable  contributions  from  the  schools  of  all  lands.  But 
the  initiatory  influences  were  the  very  best  that  the  world  had  to 
give,  and  the  predominating  control  has  at  all  times  been  in  hands 
that  were  actuated  by  Christianity  and  law  and  order ;  that  were 
guided  by  a  sincere  love  for  security  and  stability,  as  well  as  for 
freedom  and  progress.  The  American  people  have  been  quite  self- 
centered  and  independent  enough ;  they  have  adopted  little  from 
other  countries  that  would  not  be  to  their  advantage ;  what  they 
have  taken  they  have  adapted  to  their  physical  circumstances, 
religious  independence,  and  political  self-consciousness.  They 
have,  for  the  most  part,  created  their  own  educational  philosophy 
and  institutions.  And  what  is  more,  they  have  been  determined 
that  every  one  of  their  number  should  have  as  free  an  opportunity 
as  every  other  to  get  the  utmost  that  that  philosophy  and  those 
institutions  can  give.  They  are  offering  more  in  the  way  of  edu- 
cation to  all  the  people  than  any  other  nation  in  the  world.  The 
road  from  the  beginning  of  the  system  to  the  end  of  it,  is  more 
open,  continuous,  and  free  to  the  children  of  the  multitude  than  is 
the  case  in  any  other  land  or  in  any  other  plan  of  education.  We 
undertake  to  do  so  much  for  all  that  it  is  quite  true  that  we  do 
some  things  less  exactly  and  completely  than  some  other  peoples 
do  the  same  things.  But  our  educational  system  is  glorious  in  its 
democracy,  its  all-embracing  hospitality,  its  flexibility,  its  adaptive- 
ness,   and    its   aggressiveness ;    it    is    gradually   becoming    so   well 


72 

articulated  and  coherent  that  no  one  need  be  lost  in  it  or  need  fall 
out  of  it;  and  it  has  already  become  so  far-reaching,  scientific,  and 
efficient  that  none  need  go  out  of  the  country  to  find  about  all  that 
the  best  schools  of  the  old  world  have  to  offer. 

To  be  sure,  it  would  be  absurd  to  say  that  the  time  has  come, 
or  will  ever  come,  when  we  have  nothing  to  learn  from  other 
countries  or  other  systems  of  education,  but  there  is  no  longer 
need  of  such  humility  or  of  such  adulation  of  things  far  away  as 
to  fail  to  see  that  we  have  educational  privileges  that  are  more 
far-reaching  and  universal  than  those  of  any  other  people,  and 
that  we  have  much  to  give  to,  as  well  as  much  to  ask  from,  the 
scholarship  of  other  lands.  So  much  at  least  we  must  believe, 
because  it  is  the  vital  groundwork  of  that  further  educational 
progress  which  the  nation  confidently  expects. 


THE   JEWELS   OF   THE   NATION 


THE  JEWELS  OF  THE  NATION  1 

Properties  are  beyond  the  counting:  jewels  are  but  few.  Prop- 
erty values  are  settled  by  the  common  laws  of  trade:  jewel  values 
are  fixed  by  rareness  and  richness  and  by  appreciation  and  attach- 
ment. A  jewel  is  often  priceless:  its  worth  can  not  be  expressed 
in  money.  An  heirloom  handed  down  from  father  to  son,  from 
mother  to  daughter,  something  of  exceptional  cost  at  the  first  and 
made  precious  by  associations,  becomes  the  family  jewel  that  de- 
serves the  name.  But  there  are  jewels  enough  that  never  had  and 
never  can  have  commercial  value.  Thus  the  world  responds  to 
the  longings  of  the  human  heart.  All  literature  shows  abundantly 
that  jewels  have  a  stronger  hold  upon  sentiment  than  upon  sub- 
stance, upon  feeling  than  upon  fact.  Truth,  mercy,  justice,  gen- 
erosity, the  "  old  armchair,"  the  "  clock  on  the  stairs,"  the  "  old 
oaken  bucket  that  hung  in  the  well,"  perhaps  even  the  children,  as 
Cornelia  said,  become  the  precious  jewels  of  minds  that  are  clear 
and  of  hearts  that  are  sincere,  and  of  rich  and  poor  alike.  It  is 
with  nations  as  with  men  and  women.  Lands,  and  palaces,  and 
battleships,  and  crests,  and  diadems,  and  swords,  gathered  through 
the  tortuous  history  of  the  throne,  become  the  vaunted  jewels  of 
the  crown;  but  the  things  that  engage  the  affections  of  the  human 
heart  and  give  power  to  human  progress  become  the  priceless  heir- 
looms of  the  people. 

When  our  Republic  was  born,  an  hundred  and  thirty-five  years 
ago,  it  was  hardly  more  than  a  "  five  pound  baby,"  but  a  little  baby 
has  great  possibilities  and  this  one  had  a  long  head  and  a  shrill 
cry  which  quickly  gained  attention.  Three  millions  of  people  were 
widely  scattered  over  an  obdurate  soil,  between  a  long  and  dan- 
gerous coast  and  a  yet  more  dangerous  human  enemy  that  had 
reddened  many  a  hearthstone  upon  the  frontier  with  the  blood  of 
the  wife  and  children  of  the  pioneer  or  that  of  the  pioneer  himself. 
All  beyond  was  fresh  from  the  hand  of  the  Creator,  and  almost 
unknown  to  men  of  Caucasian  blood.  Vast  mountains,  noble  rivers 
and  lakes,  wild  and  dangerous  game,  an  Indian  village  here  and 
there,  trails  along  the  levels,  two  or  three  military  forts  and  Jesuit 


1  Address  given  at  Lake  Mohonk  Mountain  I  ouse,  Mohonk  Lake,  N.  Y.,  on 
Independence  Day,  191 1. 

75 


76 

missions,  were  all  that  had  been  found  by  the  armies,  and  mis- 
sionaries, and  explorers,  sent  to  annex  empire  to  European  thrones. 

But  the  little  nation  was  not  without  breeding  that  had  given  it 
quality,  or  experiences  that  had  hardened  its  arms.  It  had  statesmen 
and  they  laid  the  keel  of  a  ship  that  would  stand  a  mighty  strain. 
The  stars  upon  the  flag  have  increased  from  thirteen  to  forty-six. 
Territory  has  expanded  fourfold  and  population  thirtyfold.  A 
continually  gathering  people  have  had  a  steadily  enlarging  domain. 
They  have  never  kept  their  talent  in  a  napkin.  Moving  west,  they 
found  riches  in  the  acres  and  they  extracted  a  good  part  of  the 
richness  from  the  acres.  The  western  people  say  that  the  Atlantic 
States  would  never  have  been  occupied  at  all  if  they  had  not  been 
settled  before  the  people  learned  what  a  country  there  is  out  west. 
Riches  have  been  taken  from  the  mountains  as  well  as  from  the 
prairies.  Great  cities  have  grown  in  a  surprising  way.  The  map, 
all  the  way  to  the  Pacific,  has  become  black  with  towns  and  rail- 
road lines.  Capital  is  plentiful  and  commerce  is  quick-witted  and 
abundant.  A  growing  passion  for  universal  education  has  placed 
a  school  for  every  purpose  and  suited  to  every  mind  within  reach 
of  every  home  upon  the  soil.  Churches  have  multiplied,  and,  better 
than  that,  they  have  lived  in  unequaled  peace.  And  not  only  has  a 
church  and  a  school,  a  mill  and  a  store,  a  factory  and  a  bank, 
sprung  up  in  every  settlement,  but  the  common  power  has  given 
security  to  person  and  to  property  everywhere  and  has  provided 
every  manner  of  institution  that  could  promote  a  highly  organized 
and  exceedingly  complex  civilization  in  every  quarter  of  the  land. 
But  these  are  only  the  possessions,  the  mere  properties,  rights,  and 
privileges  of  the  people.  It  is  hardly  worth  while  to  repeat  the 
story  of  their  acquisition,  for  it  has  been  so  often  told  that  it  is 
trite  and  commonplace,  almost  gross,  to  dwell  upon  it.  The  nation, 
like  the  families  that  comprise  it,  has  treasures  not  seen,  jewels 
not  well  understood  by  others  and  not  capable  of  measurement  in 
commercial  valuations. 

First  of  these  is  the  fundamental  character  which  the  nation  in- 
herited from  the  Saxon  race.  The  Saxons  were  no  gentle  folk. 
They  lived  in  the  forests  and  grappled  with  a  rough  sea.  They 
were  strong-bodied,  stout-hearted  timber,  rooted  deep  in  the  soil  of 
nature.  Long-haired,  cold-blooded,  gluttonous,  grim  hunters  of 
men  they  were.  Serious,  stiff-necked,  sullen,  they  led  lives  that 
were  little  cheered  by  sentiment  and  song.  Of  literature  and  art 
and  architecture  they  produced  almost  none:  certainly  only  a  few 
shreds  have  come  down  to  us,  and  if  any  had  deserved  it  would 


77 

have  survived.  They  seem  to  have  been  more  like  the  old  Hebrews 
and  to  have  seized  more  strongly  upon  the  Hebraic  laws  than  any 
other  modern  people.  But  they  contributed  to  the  world  a  hardy, 
unbending  character  which  was  more  affected  than  that  of  any 
other  modern  race  by  a  Christianity,  and  most  certainly  by  the 
Old  Testament  Scripture,  that  was  unsentimental,  serious,  sublime. 
That  was  enough  for  one  race  to  give  to  recent  times.  When  it 
migrated  to  Britain  it  took  that  character  with  it  and  kept  it  intact. 
It  has  stood  through  the  ages.  It  loved  freedom  and  it  had  faith, 
and  it  let  neither  go.  Through  three  centuries  of  Norman  conquest 
it  held  to  its  landed  rights,  its  freedom  of  movement,  and  its 
faith.  Of  course  it  was  affected  by  contact  with  the  more  imagina- 
tive, the  more  light-hearted,  the  more  accomplished,  the  more  pro- 
ductive Latin  race,  but  in  the  essentials  it  remained  unchanged. 
It  mixed  in  marriage  and  in  language ;  its  sullen  nature  yielded  a 
little  to  the  New  Testament,  to  literature,  and  to  the  arts ;  but  it 
deepened  its  roots  in  the  soil  and  never  let  go  the  rights  which  as 
English  commons  it  had  acquired.  In  the  end  the  face  of  the 
composite  race  and  the  work  of  its  hands,  the  habits  of  its  mind 
and  the  expressions  of  its  heart,  the  form  of  its  language  and  the 
sublimity  of  its  faith,  were  essentially  Saxon  and  not  Norman. 

This  great  race  first  laid  the  foundations  of  constitutional  gov- 
ernment, and  through  the  long  centuries  since  it  mastered  its 
Norman  "  masters  "  it  has  maintained  them.  It  made  the  meanest 
of  the  English  kings  write  guaranties  of  the  inherent  rights  of  men 
in  Magna  Charta  at  Runnymede.  Singing  Puritan  hymns,  its  cav- 
alry rode  to  victory  over  the  king's  troops  at  Naseby  and  Dunbar 
and  at  Marston  Moor,  and  then  it  struck  off  the  head  of  the  king 
himself.  It  was  all  for  the  sake  of  liberty  as  it  understood  the 
term.  It  came  with  English  puritanism  to  America.  It  was  in 
the  English  grenadiers  and  the  Yankee  volunteers  who  forced  the 
landing  at  Louisburg,  and  who  scaled  the  heights  of  Abraham. 
So  it  determined  that  America,  as  it  had  before  determined  that 
Britain,  should  be  a  Saxon  rather  than  a  Gallic  country.  Only  a 
little  later  it  was  predominant  among  the  American  farmers  who 
saved  English  liberty  from  the  British  grenadiers  and  the  British 
government  itself,  in  the  American  Revolution.  That  race  and  its 
institutions  give  the  larger  part  of  strength  and  security  to  the 
Republic  now.  The  attributes  of  the  Saxon  race,  which  are  the 
inherent  qualities  of  English  puritanism,  make  a  unique  diamond 
brooch,  of  stones  not  overwrought,  that  reposes  in  the  jewel  box 
of  the  American  Republic. 


7» 

is  a  string  of  pearls  that  keeps  fair  companionship  with 
that  Saxon  brooch.  It  is  composed  of  the  lighter,  more  captivating 
qualities  of  the  people  who  overran  but  never  conquered  the 
Saxons,  and  of  the  other  peoples  who  cultured  the  manners  with- 
out corrupting  the  character  of  the  English  commons  either  in 
Old  England  or  New  England.  The  Normans  have  the  right  to 
the  center  of  the  string.  At  the  Conquest  they  were  the  most  pro- 
gressive people  in  the  world.  They  were  not  so  hardy  as  the 
Saxons,  but  more  ambitious.  They  wanted  better  food,  houses, 
dress,  amusements.  They  had  more  imagination,  wit,  and  humor. 
It  was  well  all  around,  and  of  peculiar  advantage  to  themselves, 
that  their  poetry  and  their  plays  had  to  deal  with  the  realities  of  a 
stubborn  people  who  kept  their  hands  upon  the  hilts  of  very  broad 
swords.  Public  knowledge  and  public  morals  gained.  The  result 
was  the  Englishman  of  modern  times.  But  the  Saxon  in  him  was 
always  predominant.  It  was  long,  long  years  before  his  experi- 
ences trained  him  into  a  citizen  who  could  assimilate  with  people 
who  were  unlike  him,  or  exercise  political  power  with  considera- 
tion for  others  than  his  Saxon  race.  It  was  not  accomplished 
before  he  came  to  America.  Even  in  New  England  he  needed  to 
have  docility,  and  humanity,  and  political  rights  and  religious  free- 
dom for  others  as  well  as  for  himself,  and  a  system  of  jurispru- 
dence, and  imagination,  and  ingenuity,  and  music,  and  painting, 
trained  into  him.  Many  peoples  from  many  lands  did  this,  and 
the  qualities  that  did  it  make  the  fair  string  of  pearls. 

There  is  no  implication  that  the  Saxon  had  all  the  honesty  and 
no  culture,  and  the  rest  all  the  culture  and  no  honesty.  But  it  is 
not  too  much  to  say  that  the  Saxons  contributed  to  our  English, 
and  later  to  our  American,  life  by  far  the  larger  share  of  that 
inherent  and  unyielding  character  without  which  culture  is  of  no 
account  and  democracy  is  impossible.  They  trained  much  of  that 
character  into  many  peoples  with  more  culture  and  less  firmness  of 
character,  while  they  were  themselves  gaining  inspiration  from 
those  whom  they  were  training.  Together  they  were  blending 
order  and  stability,  aspiration  and  opportunity,  into  the  character 
which  has  made  the  Republic  what  it  is.  All  these  qualities  are 
expressed  by  jewels  of  very  great,  though  of  possibly  unequal, 
worth. 

Independence  is  another  of  the  nation's  heirlooms.  We  have 
become  a  greater  people  and  have  accomplished  more  because  we 
acquired  it.     The  habits  of  life  in  all  parts  of  the  world  and  all 


79 

the  activities  of  civilization  have  been  invigorated  by  American 
independence  and  sovereignty.  This  contains  no  reflection  .  upon 
Britain.  British  justice  might  have  been  saved  without  separation. 
We  had  real  grievances,  but  it  is  quite  possible  that  they  might 
have  been  redressed  without  war.  We  had  the  stiff  necks  of  the 
Saxons,  plus  the  substance  of  English  puritanism,  plus  that  acumen 
of  mind  which  is  natural  to  life  in  a  new  world;  we  had  the 
stubbornness  of  the  Englishman  and  rather  more  than  his  ver- 
satility in  creating  occasions  and  making  excuses;  we  stated  our 
grievances  as  strongly  as  the  ablest  men  of  the  eighteenth  century 
could,  and  we  put  upon  an  honest  but  stupid  king,  and  upon  a 
fatuous  political  administration,  the  alternative  of  retreat  or  of 
war.  Britons  seldom  retreat,  and  so  there  was  a  war  of  seven 
years,  and  independence.  But  all  this  was  only  opening  the  door 
to  the  inevitable.  In  one  way  or  another  independence  was  to  be. 
There  was  some  dubious  knowledge  about  the  fact,  and  there  may 
have  been  some  dissembling  about  it ;  but,  whether  we  knew  it  or 
not,  we  wanted  it;  we  had  to  give  reasons  for  taking  what  we 
wanted,  and  the  ablest  statesmen  found  excuses  that  sufficed  to 
make  the  Saxon  and  the  Puritan  and  the  New  England  conscience 
fight  for  the  independence  that  had  to  be. 

It  had  to  be  in  order  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  overwhelming 
fact  of  modern  history  —  the  evolution  of  a  new  and  mighty 
nation  with  a  republican  form  of  government,  in  America.  The 
colonial  policy  of  Britain  was  more  arrogant  then  than  now.  The 
lesson  of  the  American  Revolution  sunk  deep  into  British  national 
policy  and  brought  to  the  colonies  and  dependencies  which  con- 
tinued under  her  sovereignty  such  measure  of  independence  as 
would  contribute  to  the  growth  and  the  self-respect  of  each,  and 
thus  to  the  greatness  of  the  whole,  without  much  further  menace 
to  the  unity  of  the  Empire.  But  the  resistless  future  forbade  all 
compromise  in  the  case  out  of  which  that  lesson  grew.  Nothing 
but  absolute  independence,  complete  self-responsibility,  entire  free- 
dom of  initiative,  and  flexibility  of 'plan,  could  invite  and  assimi- 
late the  peoples  of  the  world,  or  initiate  enterprises  of  which 
Britain  had  never  dreamed.  Separateness  alone  contained  the 
seeds  of  the  national  self -expansion  which  was  due  in  America. 
It  had  to  precede  the  Federal  and  state  constitutions  which  make 
legislation  very  free,  and  yet  avoid  the  dangers  of  it  by  creating 
the  power  of  veto  in  the  courts,  a  device  which  British  lawyers 
would  have  prevented  if  it  had  not  shocked  them  into  insensibility. 


8o 

And  it  had  to  precede  our  always  free-flowing  stream  of  statute 
law,  which  some  deplore  but  which  has  afforded  democracy  its 
opportunities  to  propagate  the  intellectual  and  industrial  activities 
of  the  country.  Yes,  entire  independence  was  the  breath  of  life 
to  the  unfolding  of  a  democracy  in  America  and  to  the  progress 
of  democracy  in  the  world.  It  had  to  be.  It  was  for  the  good  of 
America,  and  Britain,  and  all  the  world.  It  is  a  fine  jewel  in 
the  box. 

Equality  of  right  and  of  opportunity  is  a  precious  gem  held  by 
the  people  of  the  United  States.  It  is  no  empty  boast.  Our  politi- 
cal system  well  expresses  the  common  opposition  to  special  privi- 
leges and  the  common  demand  that  every  one  shall  have  his  equal 
chance.  This  opposition  and  this  demand  are  much  more  pro- 
nounced than  in  the  first  half  century,  or  the  second  half  century, 
of  the  Republic.  No  political  system  that  is  real  will  ever  be  ideal. 
Ours  is  real,  and  of  course  its  applications  sometimes  fail.  But  it 
opens  the  door  of  opportunity  to  every  one  more  nearly  than  any 
political  system  in  Europe  can  possibly  do.  For  example,  there  is 
not  an  educational  system  in  Europe,  not  excepting  by  any  means 
that  of  our  Mother  Country,  which  is  not  a  machine  set  to  lift  up 
the  children  of  the  upper  classes  and  keep  down  those  of  the  lower 
classes.  And  the  machine  is  so  supported  by  the  common  thinking 
and  by  long  usage  that  a  plebeian  seldom  breaks  through  the  bar- 
rier it  sets  up,  seldom  goes  to  the  advanced  schools,  and  seldom 
reaches  a  high  place  in  commercial,  professional,  or  public  life. 
That  is  not  so  in  this  country.  The  public  educational  system  of 
America  has  been  arranged  by  the  poor  to  help  the  poor  to  the 
very  best  there  is  in  learning,  and  it  has  been  so  well  arranged 
and  is  so  strongly  supported  that  it  does  more  for  the  poor  than 
the  more  exclusive  schools  do  for  the  children  of  the  rich.  And 
the  educational  system  is  only  one  expression  of  the  political 
philosophy  of  the  country.  For  whatever  end  that  philosophy  ex- 
presses itself,  it  does  so  freely.  People  will  associate  and  organize 
upon  whatever  lines  they  like,  but  the  public  policy  of  the  country 
will  never  be  exclusive.  The  common  people  hold  the  political 
power  and  they  intend  to  use  it.  They  fix  the  tax  rate  and  they 
make  the  appropriations.  They  are  going  to  have  the  best  possi- 
bilities of  a  self-governing  state.  There  is  more  danger  to  the 
rich  than  to  the  poor,  but  the  fundamental  laws  protect  them  and 
they  are  better  able  to  invoke  those  laws.  In  any  event,  this  is  the 
landwhere  the  constitutions,  and  the  laws,  and  public  opinion,  and 


common  usage,  intend  to  hold  out  equality  of  rights  and  of  oppor- 
tunity to  all.    That  is  a  gem  of  our  own  finding:  let  us  venerate  it. 

Religious  freedom  is  a  jewel  of  the  finest  form  and  fiber  in  the 
government  of  the  United  States.  The  complete  independence  of 
church  and  state  is  not  usual  in  other  lands.  It  is  decreed  by  law 
in  a  few,  but  in  hardly  any  is  it  established  in  fact  as  here.  That 
fact  has  a  weighty  influence  upon  the  hearts  of  the  people.  No 
one  gains  prerogative  and  no  one  suffers  in  his  rights  or  his  estate 
because  he  is  an  Episcopalian,  or  a  Lutheran,  or  a  Roman  Catholic, 
or  a  Quaker.  The  state  can  not  use  a  church  to  bolster  up  its 
power,  and  no  church  need  deaden  its  spirituality  by  obeisance  to  a 
monarch  or  by  maneuvering  politics  to  gain  prestige  and  appro- 
priations. It  makes  for  religious  freedom ;  it  creates  interdenomi- 
national respect  and  fraternity;  and  it  absolutely  interdicts  the  re- 
ligious warfare  which  has  shed  more  human  blood  than  any  other 
warfare  in  history.  That  too  is  a  gem  of  our  own  finding,  and  it 
is  to  the  good  and  the  honor  of  the  nation  that  cherishes  it  so 
warmly. 

There  is  another  jewel  in  the  box  that  is  exclusively  our  own. 
That  is  the  right  to  mind  our  own  business,  and  to  expect  that 
other  people  will  mind  theirs.  It  is  more  of  a  boon  than  the  un- 
thinking will  appreciate.  It  has  come  through  our  isolated  situa- 
tion, geographically,  religiously,  and  politically.  We  are  remote 
from  other  countries  which  we  have  any  occasion  to  fear.  Our 
border  controversies  with  Great  Britain  on  the  north  are  easily 
settled  by  negotiation  or  arbitration;  and  any  that  we  may  have 
upon  the  south  are  likely  to  tax  our  sense  of  justice  more  than 
cur  power  to  do  what  we  will.  Great  oceans  separate  us  from 
other  continents.  Happily,  the  United  States  wants  nothing  but 
comity  and  good-will  with  all  other  peoples.  We  are  not  seeking 
empire ;  we  are  not  going  to  force  our  system  on  others ;  we  want 
to  carry  our  fair  share  of  the  white  man's  burden  in  the  world; 
we  are  willing  all  the  others  shall  carry  all  they  will.  Our 
diplomacy  has  always  been  direct.  We  want  peace.  Nobody 
thinks  we  are  insipid;  nobody  doubts  that  we  can  fight.  But 
we  have  never  had  occasion  and  we  have  never  assumed  to  be 
prepared  for  war.  The  constitutions,  the  laws,  the  balanced 
sentiment  of  the  country,  contemplate  that  we  shall  preserve 
order  and  be  prepared  to  put  down  insurrection;  but  there  is 
no  suggestion  more  un-American  than  that  about  preparedness 
for  war  with  foreign  countries.     It  comes  from  men  who  are 


82 

interested  unworthily,  or  from  others  who  are  so  fanciful  and 
flighty  that  they  are  not  to  be  listened  to.  The  effort  to  expand 
the  army  or  navy  beyond  the  needs  of  police  duty  in  the  country 
and  along  our  coasts  involves  a  distinct  departure  from  the 
traditional  purpose  of  the  people  and  the  clear  intent  of  the 
laws  of  the  United  States.  Any  attempt  to  create  an  American 
military  or  naval  armament,  always  ready  for  war  with  the 
military  powers  of  Europe,  would  be  distinctly  discreditable 
to  us.  The  fact  that  we  have  not  had  to  do  it  is  the  fact  which 
has  enabled  us  to  go  forward  on  the  road  of  happiness  and  pros- 
perity at  a  bound.  We  may  easily  do  justice  to  and  live  at  peace 
with  all  the  world;  and  we  should  resent  any  attempt  of  the 
unthinking  or  the  self-interested  to  involve  us  in  brutalities 
which  cost  many  lives  and  more  money  than  will  support  all  the 
churches  and  schools  of  a  peaceful  people  for  all  time. 

There  are  other  jewels  in  the  nation's  strong-box,  but  there 
is  no  time  to  examine  them  now.  We  have  not  exhibited  our 
riches;  we  have  not  boasted  of  our  accomplishments;  we  have 
not  fought  over  again  the  battles  won,  and  conveniently  failed 
to  recall  those  that  were  lost.  This  is  almost  enough  to  expel 
human  interest  from  the  Fourth  of  July,  but  it  may  come  nearer 
the  "  safe  and  sane  "  observance  of  the  anniversary  which  so 
many  desire.  We  have  not  even  indulged  in  prophecy;  we  have 
not  foretold  what  the  nation  will  do  and  what  it  will  become  in 
an  hundred  years;  and  you  must  know  that  abstinence  of  that 
kind  is  a  cruel  limitation  upon  the  traditional  privileges  of  a 
Fourth  of  July  speaker. 

We  have  merely  been  looking  over  the  nation's  heirlooms 
and  recalling  the  associations  that  make  them  sacred.  We  may 
well  look  over  the  nation's  properties  as  well  as  its  heirlooms. 
We  may  have  been  thinking  of  the  difficulties  which  such  a  hetero- 
geneous people,  of  an  hundred  millions,  must  have  in  caring  for 
such  an  estate  upon  the  basis  of  free  government.  Fifty  years 
after  Bunker  Hill,  Webster  declared  democratic  government  to  be 
u  the  master  work  of  the  world."  But  that  was  eighty-six  years 
ago,  and  he  could  not  contemplate  the  situation  that  is  upon  us  now. 
Nor  can  we  estimate  the  difficulties  when  the  nation  shall  have 
five  hundred  or  a  thousand  millions  of  people,  as  it  is  more  than 
likely  to  have.  It  is  a  question  of  capacity.  Some  people  have  to  be 
much  controlled.  There  are  whole  peoples  to  whom  it  would  be 
absurd  to  entrust  the  powers  of  government.     The  old  stock  in 


83 

America  could  govern ;  the  new  accessions  have  brought  priceless 
contributions  to  our  American  civilization  and,  after  a  little,  most  of 
them  have  shown  the  qualities  which  make  government  secure.  We 
expect  this  will  continue.  But  it  would  be  simplicity  itself  to  regard 
with  indifference  the  capacity  of  the  multiplying  millions  for  that 
self-government  which  will  afford  abundant  security  and  provide 
steadily  enlarging  advantages  to  every  one  in  the  land,  for  all  time. 
Nothing  less  than  equal  justice  and  equivalent  opportunity  for 
all ;  nothing  less  than  universal  and,  if  necessary,  compulsory  edu- 
cation ;  nothing  less  than  the  gospel  of  universal  work ;  nothing 
less  than  a  firmness  that  hates  insipidity  and  commands  respect; 
nothing  less  than  the  fair-dealing  and  good-will  which  are  the 
essence  of  our  Christianity;  nothing  less  than  steadiness,  and 
patience,  and  toleration,  and  good-cheer,  and  confidence,  can  give 
us  assurance  of  enduring  success.  Happily,  we  have  gathered 
many  of  these  qualities  from  the  four  corners  of  the  earth  and 
out  of  the  long  history  of  the  human  race,  and,  more  happily  still, 
they  seem  to  grow  and  multiply  in  the  air  that  is  "  full  of  sunshine  " 
and  under  the  flag  that  is  "  full  of  stars." 


CRITICISMS     OF     EDUCATION     CHAPTER    IN 
PROPOSED   NEW  YORK  CITY   CHARTER 


CRITICISMS  OF  EDUCATION  CHAPTER  IN  PROPOSED 
NEW  YORK  CITY   CHARTER 

Albany,  August  2,  19 11 
Hon.  James  A.  Foley 

Chairman  Assembly  Cities  Committee 
316  East  Eighteenth  Street 
New  York  City 
My  dear  sir: 

Your  committee  has  prepared  a  new  charter  for  New  York  City 
which  the  Legislature  is  expected  to  act  upon  in  September  next. 
As  the  Constitution  requires  a  State  system  of  schools,  the  chief 
educational  officer  of  the  State  is  bound  to  be  concerned  about  a 
chapter  which  arranges  an  untried  plan  of  government  for  the 
schools  of  half  the  children  of  the  State. 

Your  committee  has  felt  the  unrest  that  always  exists  in  the 
school  system  in  New  York  City  as  in  every  great  system ;  you  have 
doubtless  tried  to  meet  a  difficult  situation  in  the  best  way  you 
could;  and  it  may  be  said  that  the  literary  and  legal  side  of  your 
work  seems  wTell  done.  But  in  my  judgment  the  new  kind  of  school 
government  which  you  propose  to  set  up  is  vitally  defective,  would 
work  great  mischief,  and  could  not  long  endure.  I  beg  to  say  in 
what  respects  this  is  so,  before  the  inevitable  haste  attendant  upon 
an  unusual  and  probably  brief  legislative  session  in  the  fall. 

Your  educational  chapter  abolishes  the  Board  of  Education  as  a 
separate  corporate  entity  and  sinks  the  government  of  the  schools 
in  the  government  of  the  city.  The  character  if  not  the  very  life 
of  the  schools  depends  upon  freedom  from  all  partisanship,  and 
most  assuredly  upon  freedom  from  municipal  politics.  The  com- 
mon schools  provide  the  common  meeting  ground,  where  all  par- 
tisans stand  equal,  and  where  nothing  repugnant  to  any  may  ob- 
trude itself.  In  the  very  nature  of  things,  that  is  impossible  under 
any  political  government  or  under  any  existing  municipal  adminis- 
tration. An  educational  system  can  not  thrive  unless  wholly  actu- 
ated by  educational  principles  and  free  from  all  that  interferes 
with  their  operation.  This  fundamental  basis  of  the  school  system 
has  long  been  accepted  by  public  opinion  and  incorporated  in  our 
system  of  laws.  The  courts,  lower  and  higher,  in  this  and  in  many 
other  states,  have  often  declared  that  the  common  school  system 


88 

has  an  entity  of  its  own,  and  that  the  laws  of  the  country  intend 
it  shall  have  independence. 

It  is  true  that  in  this  State  we  have  the  unfortunate  habit  of 
legislating  in  the  city  charters  about  the  schools  that  are  in  our 
cities.  It  misleads  some.  It  would  be  better  if  all  educational  legis- 
lation were  classified  in  the  Education  Law.  But  even  where  the 
charters  have  assumed  to  merge  the  government  of  the  schools  in 
the  government  of  the  cities,  and  have  named  the  officers  of  the 
schools  among  the  officers  of  the  cities,  the  courts  have  said,  and  the 
Legislature  itself  has  said,  that  that  was  inadvertent ;  that  the  offi- 
cers of  the  schools  could  not  thereby  become  officers  of  the  cities, 
and  that  nothing  could  destroy  the  right  of  the  schools  to  be  free 
and  independent.  In  solemn  confirmance  of  this  principle  the  people 
incorporated  the  "  Children's  Bill  of  Rights  "  in  the  State  Constitu- 
tion in  1894,  and  made  it  fundamental  that  the  Legislature  shall 
provide,  not  thirty  municipal  school  systems,  but  one  State  "  system 
of  common  schools  wherein  all  the  children  of  the  State  may  be 
educated."  It  is  true  that  your  educational  chapter,  in  a  minor 
way,  recognizes  this  State  system  and  the  fact  that  the  New  York 
City  schools  are  a  part  of  it.  It  looks  as  though  the  purpose  was 
to  go  to  the  very  limit  of  power  in  submerging  the  schools  in  the 
business  of  the  city,  without  going  so  far  as  to  force  the  courts  to 
declare  the  whole  work  void.  It  is  possible  that  legal  learning  and 
astuteness  have  avoided  a  fatal  constitutional  objection;  but  it  is 
doubtful.  It  may  be  that  the  courts  could  hold  that  the  Legislature 
had  legal  competency  to  make  as  much  use  of  a  municipal  govern- 
ment for  the  ends  of  the  State  system  of  education  as  the  commit- 
tee provides  for  in  the  new  charter.  But  why  involve  the  schools 
of  the  first  city  of  the  country  in  the  probability  of  demoralizing 
litigation,  and,  above  all,  why  depart  as  far  as  may  be  from  prin- 
ciples that  are  obviously  for  the  good  of  the  schools  and  very 
universally  accepted? 

But  whatever  its  relations,  the  government  of  the  schools  must 
be  a  popular  government,  and  an  educational  government,  and  a 
government  that  governs.  It  may  easily  be  all  that.  The  universal 
practice  has  been  to  intrust  the  management  of  the  schools  to  an 
unsalaried  board  of  prominent  and  intelligent  citizens,  who  were 
interested  in  popular  education  but  who  were  not  professional  edu- 
cators ;  confer  upon  this  board  legislative  powers,  within  legal  limi- 
tations, over  the  school  system ;  and  authorize  it  to  appoint  suitable 
executive  officers  both  on  the  business  and  the  instructional  side  of 


the  affairs  of  the  schools.  The  universal  theory  and  the  best  prac- 
tice in  good  school  government  requires  that  all  the  members  of 
this  board  shall  represent  the  educational  interests  of  the  entire  city 
and  not  of  subdivisions  thereof ;  that  the  members  of  the  board  shall 
not  act  as  individuals  and  shall  not  possess  administrative  or 
quasi-administrative  functions,  but  shall  be  limited  to  action  taken  in 
legal  meetings  of  the  board  and  recorded  in  its  journal.  Boards  legis- 
late; individuals  execute.  No  complex  government,  as  that  of  the 
New  York  City  school  system  must  be,  has  ever  been  successful 
where  these  legislative  and  executive  functions  have  overlapped. 
The  larger  the  system,  the  more  imperative  is  this  principle.  Con- 
fusion of  mind  about  this  has  produced  paralyzing  controversy  and 
demoralization  in  all  large  systems  of  schools.  The  common  de- 
mand of  universal  experience  is  not  only  that  legislative  and  execu- 
tive functions  shall  be  separated,  but  quite  as  much  that  the  man- 
agement of  the  business  affairs  and  of  the  instructional  work  shall 
be  as  sharply  separated,  and  committed  to  responsible  and  specially 
qualified  executors.  The  scheme  of  government  must  be  such  that 
if  there  is  misconduct  about  the  business  of  the  system,  some  one 
man  may  be  held  responsible  for  it;  such  that  a  parent  who  finds 
that  his  child  is  in  the  hands  of  a  cranky  or  a  woodeny  teacher  may 
go  right  to  the  man  or  woman  who  has  authority  to  correct  the 
difficulty.  The  scheme  must  be  clean  cut,  so  arranged  that  officials 
can  not  overreach  one  another ;  so  arranged  that  each  may  have  the 
credit  of  good  work  and  must  have  the  odium  of  bad  work;  so 
arranged  that  the  schools  must  steadily  grow  in  character  and  effi- 
ciency, or  intelligent  citizens  be  able  to  know  where  the  trouble  is. 

These  are  some  of  the  foundation  principles  of  a  good  govern- 
ment for  schools.  Indeed  they  are  the  vital  ones :  if  they  are 
observed  in  good  faith,  the  rest  will  take  care  of  itself.  They  are 
upheld  by  every  man  and  woman  of  experience  and  reputation  in 
the  country.  Yet,  by  a  singular  succession  of  coincidences,  the 
educational  chapter  in  your  charter  defies  every  one  of  them.  Let 
me  specify,  but  with  necessary  brevity : 

You  provide  that  the  Board  of  Education  shall  have  no  separate 
corporate  powers;  that  all  of  its  work  shall  be  absolutely  sunk  in 
the  business  of  the  city.  This  not  only  deprives  education  of  its 
vital  freedom,  but  it  puts  the  schools  in  the  same  class  as  the  police 
and  fire  and  park  and  street-cleaning  departments.  Those  depart- 
ments are  operated  on  business  principles  and  essentially  managed 
through  discipline.    Education  is  a  professional  matter,  and  schools 


90 

can  be  made  efficient  only  by  observing  pedagogical  principles  and 
by  adapting  teachers  who  are  professionally  trained  to  duties  for 
which  they  are  particularly  fitted.  No  school  system  has  ever  been 
highly  or  even  measurably  satisfactory  in  which  this  policy  was 
not  cherished. 

You  provide  a  board  of  seven  persons,  with  salaries  of  $9000  for 
each  of  six  members  and  $10,000  for  the  chairman,  to  manage  the 
schools  in  subordination  to  the  political  government  of-  the  city. 
This  is  an  arrangement  wholly  new  to  American  education  and  to 
education  in  all  countries.  It  is  not  only  new ;  there  is  nothing  to 
commend  it.  When  a  board  of  education  meets  only  occasionally 
to  legislate  upon  and  appoint  the  higher  officers  of  the  school  sys- 
tem, there  is  no  difficulty  in  getting  better  members  without  than 
with  salaries.  Good  citizens  in  plenty  are  glad  to  render  this  serv- 
ice if  it  is  a  matter  of  honor  and  not  a  purchased  and  paid  service. 
And  none  can  doubt  that  such  salaries .  will  attract  men  without 
special  fitness  and  who  are  looking  for  the  compensation,  and  that 
in  the  long  run,  if  not  at  once,  such  salaries  would  be  made  the  re- 
ward of  party  service  rather  than  of  educational  service.  That  is 
necessarily  destructive  of  education  and  of  schools. 

But  the  intent  as  to  the  character  and  functions  of  this  board  is 
not  made  clear  by  the  bill.  Is  it  to  be  a  board  of  lay  citizens,  or  of 
educational  experts,  or  of  both?  If  it  is  made  up  wholly  of  educa- 
tionists it  will  bring  untold  harm  to  the  schools.  Popular  control 
over  the  common  schools  is  as  necessary  as  pedagogical  expertness 
in  the  schools.  The  schools  are  the  people's  schools  and  the  people 
would  show  great  unwisdom  in  handing  them  wholly  over  to  pro- 
fessional teachers.  If  the  board  is  to  be  constituted  wholly  of  lay- 
men, it  is  neither  necessary  nor  desirable  that  the  members  be 
expected  to  give  their  entire  time  and  become  salaried  office-holders. 
If  it  is  to  be  composed  of  both  lay  and  professional  members,  dis- 
agreements and  dissension  are  inevitable,  because  it  would  be  too 
much  to  expect  that  the  professional  members  would  be  of  the 
unambitious  kind  or  of  those  who  love  teaching  above  all  else,  and 
power  and  pedantry  might  be  in  uncomfortable  proximity. 

It  is  arranged  that  all  members  of  the  board  shall  represent  par- 
ticular boroughs.  This  will  make  members  supreme  as  to  their 
own  boroughs ;  it  will  lead  to  log-rolling  to  accomplish  results  in 
certain  boroughs ;  and  it  will  deprive  all  the  boroughs  of  the  free 
judgment  and  disinterested  efforts  of  all  the  members. 

It  is  provided  that  the  Board  of  Education  may  fix  the  salaries 


9i 

of  all  officers,  employees,  and  teachers,  subject  to  the  approval  of 
the  Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportionment  and  the  Board  of  Alder- 
men. No  one  of  the  least  experience  needs  to  be  told  that  this 
necessarily  undermines  educational  administration  on  the  merit 
basis.  In  practical  operation  it  subjects  the  members  of  the  polit- 
ical boards  of  the  city  to  importunity  by  teachers  and  their  friends 
for  the  increase  of  particular  salaries,  and  it  gives  the  members  of 
those  boards  dictatorial  powers  over  individual  salaries,  and  thus 
over  the  higher  educational  officers.  It  defies  the  superintendent 
and  his  assistants,  and  gives  brazen  effrontery  the  opportunity  to 
override  merit  in  a  way  which  every  teacher  who  is  too  honest  and 
capable  to  depend  upon  influence  should  resent.  This  arrangement, 
taken  in  connection  with  a  salaried  board  of  education,  would  put 
the  school  system  so  deep  in  municipal  politics  that  it  could  never 
be  redeemed  except  by  revolution. 

It  is  plain  enough  that  the  new  charter  intends  to  reduce  the  office 
of  city  superintendent  to  a  subordinate  and  inferior  place.  The  bill 
provides  that  he  may  enforce  the  compulsory  attendance  law,  and 
assign  his  clerks  to  duty,  and  make  reports  to  the  board,  and  that  is 
about  all ;  it  does  not  empower  him  to  do  anything  which  may  legit- 
imately claim  the  attention  of  real  leadership,  or  exercise  any  of  the 
independence  which  the  people  should  be  glad  to  give  to  any  man 
whom  they  would  be  willing  to  have  occupy  the  office.  A  system 
of  schools  requires  a  responsible  educational  leader,  and  no  capable 
and  self-respecting  man  can  hold  the  position  without  the  rights, 
powers,  and  opportunities  of  real  leadership.  In  educational  admin- 
istration some  one  must  lead.  A  dozen  educational  leaders  with 
equal  and  coordinate  powers  will  not  agree  and  will  deprive  the 
instructional  work  of  all  coherency,  efficiency,  and  progress. 

There  are  several  provisions  in  the  proposed  charter  which  limit 
appointments  upon  the  supervisory  and  instructional  forces  to  per- 
sons already  connected  with  the  New  York  City  schools.  For 
example,  no  one  can  be  appointed  city  superintendent,  associate 
superintendent,  or  district  superintendent  who  has  not  been  con- 
nected with  the  New  York  City  schools  for  seven  years.  In  this 
way,  the  rights  now  enjoyed  by  the  holders  of  college  graduate 
certificates,  normal  school  diplomas,  and  other  high  grade  certifi- 
cates, issued  by  the  State  Education  Department  and  protected  by 
the  laws  of  the  State,  are  annulled.  This  is,  of  course,  in  the  inter- 
ests of  individuals  and  not  of  the  schools.  There  is  no  reason 
why  the  New  York  City  schools  should  not  get  the  most  competent 


92 

superintendents  and  teachers  which  the  rather  liberal  compensation 
will  command.  Those  who  are  already  in  the  system  have  advan- 
tage enough.  There  is  no  danger  of  their  being  passed  by  if  they 
are  deserving.  It  is  well  for  them  to  know  that  they  are,  in  some 
small  measure,  in  competition  with  all  teachers  in  the  State;  it  is 
well  to  introduce  a  little  fresh  blood  from  outside.  It  is  not  only 
well,  but  upon  principle  it  is  necessary.  All  true  educationists 
know  very  well  that  neither  they  nor  the  schools  prosper  through 
educational  narrowness  and  exclusiveness.  If  the  Legislature  is 
obliged  to  depart  from  this  wholesome  principle  in  the  interests  of 
people  already  in  the  service,  by  just  so  much  will  intelligent  confi- 
dence in  democratic  government  be  broken  down. 

It  is  not  at  all  certain  that  New  York  City  is  not  too  large  a 
unit  for  a  single  instructional  administration  to  manage  in  a  way 
which  will  assure  reasonable  justice  to  each  teacher,  and  make  it 
possible  for  parents  to  know  that  their  children  are  getting  the  kind 
of  teaching  that  they  have  the  right  to  demand.  The  population 
is  so  large  and  the  activities  so  complex  that  it  may  be  impossible 
to  maintain  the  necessary  efficiency  and  also  the  universal  spirit  of 
kindliness  and  helpfulness  without  which  schools  can  hardly  be 
worth  their  cost.  If  experience  seems  to  show  that  this  is  so,  then 
there  may  be  made  just  as  many  units  or  districts  for  the  purposes 
of  instructional  supervision  as  may  be  thought  advisable.  That 
might  easily  be  done,  while  the  financial  management  of  the  whole 
should  be  kept  within  the  control  of  a  single  authority.  But,  what- 
ever the  size  of  the  administrative  units,  each  must  have  an  indi- 
viduality of  its  own,  with  educational  government  in  which  author- 
ity and  responsibility  are  strongly  centralized  and  beyond  the  need 
of  bending  the  knee  to  any  power  or  influence  that  is  unworthy. 

There  are  many  very  vital  omissions  from  this  plan  of  govern- 
ment for  the  schools  of  eighteen  thousand  teachers  and  three- 
quarters  of  a  million  children.  Practically  all  of  it  relates  to  the 
personal  rights  and  financial  interests  of  individuals :  there  is 
little  looking  to  the  refinement  and  uplift  of  the  system.  There 
is  nothing  to  keep  the  overambitious  from  overreaching ;  nothing  to 
punish  the  subtle  and  brutal  use  of  power ;  nothing  to  give  reward  to 
professional  zeal  and  altruistic  endeavor.  No  doubt  this  is  because 
of  the  nature  of  the  influences  that  come  most  quickly  to  the  Legis- 
lature when  the  possibility  of  a  new  charter  arises.  No  doubt  it 
will  be  said  that  the  spirit  and  character  of  the  system  can  not  be 
created  in  the  law.    But  a  legislative  committee  may  well  hear  others 


93 

than  those  who  are  thinking  of  their  own  rights  and  interests,  and  a 
law  which  governs  a  great  system  of  schools  must  of  necessity- 
define  powers  and  set  up  safeguards  which  will  give  opportunity 
and  protection  to  the  great  central  motive  of  our  system  of  public 
education.  All  reference  to  this  seems  strangely  absent  from  the 
fanciful  new  school  law  that  is  under  consideration. 

More  can  not  be  said  in  this  letter.  Enough  has  been  said  to 
demonstrate  that  the  proposed  charter,  so  far  as  education  is  con- 
cerned, is  no  better  than  the  present  one.  I  have  no  doubt  that  if 
it  were  to  go  into  operation  it  would  prove  much  worse.  Surely, 
radical  changes  in  the  school  system  which  concern  all  the  people 
of  the  first  city  of  the  land,  which  is  soon  to  be  the  first  city  of  the 
world,  ought  not  to  be  made  by  the  Legislature  unless  it  is  clear 
that  they  are  for  the  better. 

I  am  far  from  thinking  that  changes  could  not  be  made  which 
would  be  for  the  better.  But  they  can  be  made  only  with  full 
information  and  in  the  light  of  the  experiences  of  New  York  City 
and  the  other  great  cities  of  the  country  and  the  world.  They  do 
not  have  to  be  made  in  haste,  at  a  brief  session  of  the  Legislature. 
There  is  another  fact  that  none  should  forget :  if  a  political  party 
will  regard  the  fundamentals  of  education,  and  will  make  changes 
in  the  government  of  the  schools  solely  to  promote  their  efficiency 
and  enlarge  their  good  to  the  people,  that  party  may  be  entirely  con- 
fident that  the  millions  who  are  interested  in  the  people's  schools 
will  appreciate  its  course.  But  that  can  not  be  done  without  listen- 
ing to  those  who  are  disinterestedly  concerned  about  the  progress 
of  all  the  children  and  particularly  to  those  whose  business  it  has 
been  to  study  the  government  of  the  schools. 

The  Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportionment  is  at  this  time  causing 
a  careful  inquiry  into  the  affairs  of  the  New  York  City  schools  to 
be  made  by  one  of  the  prominent  educationists  of  the  country. 
Why  not  wait  until  his  impartial  and  critical  report  as  to  the  facts, 
and  his  recommendations,  shall  be  made,  and  then  call  the  willing 
help  of  leading  citizens  and  of  professional  and  experienced  experts 
to  the  aid  of  the  Legislature  in  the  preparation  of  legislation  which 
the  sensitive  and  substantial  sentiment  of  the  people  will  applaud? 


REMARKS  AT  THE  INAUGURATION  OF  CHAN- 
CELLOR ELMER  ELLSWORTH  BROWN 


REMARKS  AT  THE  INAUGURATION  OF  CHANCELLOR 
ELMER  ELLSWORTH  BROWN1 

The  State  of  New  York  was  represented  by  Dr  Andrew  S. 
Draper,  Commissioner  of  Education,  who  said: 

Mr  Chancellor,  there  are  so  many  people  in  the  State  of  New 
York  that  it  is  impossible  to  collect  and  compound  their  sentiment 
upon  any  subject  not  already  well  settled  in  American  public  policy 
unless  it  is  a  matter  of  practically  universal  and  paramount  con- 
cern. But  the  support  of  all  schools,  high  and  low,  is  among  the 
settled  policies,  indeed  is  a  confirmed  passion  in  America,  and  I 
a  i  sure  all  the  people  will  be  glad  to  have  their  interest  in  these 
uncommon  exercises  expressed  to  this  university,  and  their  good 
wishes  presented,  with  warmth  of  feeling,  to  its  new  chancellor. 

States  are  very  dependent  upon  universities,  even  though  all  the 
people  do  not  always  appreciate  them.  It  is  quite  possible  that 
states  and  universities  may  wholly  misunderstand  one  another. 
Scholarship  is  frequently  dazed  by  politics,  and  politics  is  some- 
times brutally  indifferent  to  scholarship.  On  ordinary  days  it  is 
very  hard  for  them  to  mix,  for  scholars  have  very  little  patience 
with  the  practical  difficulties  of  the  State,  and  the  State  is  not  likely 
to  become  excited  over  such  questions  as  whether  classical  history 
or  scientific  research  is  entitled  to  the  most  money;  or  whether 
training  boys  and  girls  in  vocational  industries  is  likely  to  deprive 
the  professions  of  medicine  and  law  of  the  necessary  novitiates  and 
prove  a  menace  to  the  very  life  of  universities.  So,  the  State  is 
glad  to  come  into  this  university  on  a  day  when  it  will  not  en- 
counter the  danger  of  running  into  phantom  fights  over  academic 
questions  which  it  might  not  understand. 

This  is  a  university  with  a  noble  history;  it  is  doing  efficient 
work;  and  it  is  looking  out  upon  enticing  prospects.  It  is  in  a 
great  city  where  there  is  no  end  of  people  to  be  trained  for  every 
kind  of  leadership,  and  no  end  of  every  manner  of  work  for  uni- 
versities to  do.  The  State  asks  it  to  uphold  scholarship  and  do 
what  it  can  to  apply  scholarship  to  life,  and  knowing  that  such  is 
its  aim,  the  State  wishes  this  university  well. 
It  is  my  great  pleasure  particularly  to  felicitate  New  York  Uni- 


1New  York  University,  November  9,  191 1. 

97 


98 

versity  upon  the  accession  of  the  new  chancellor.  He  has  attributes 
which  appeal  very  strongly  to  the  people  of  the  State.  He  was 
born  upon  a  New  York  farm.  Whether  or  not  it  is  better  to  be 
born  upon  a  farm  than  in  a  city  there  are  many  men  and  women 
in  the  cities  who  give  evidence  that  it  is.  Of  course  there  are  a  few 
here  who  have  missed  altogether  the  distinction  of  being  born  in 
the  State  of  New  York.  If  no  one  will  call  the  matter  up  against 
them,  neither  will  any  one  deny  that  New  York  is  a  very  good  State 
for  a  New  York  University  president  to  be  born  in.  Chancellor 
Brown  was  not  only  born  in  a  good  state  but  at  a  good  time.  He 
was  born  just  at  the  time  to  get  the  name  of  a  gallant  young  colonel 
of  a  New  York  State  and  New  York  City  regiment,  who  was  the 
first  of  a  long  line  of  hallowed  sacrifices  to  give  his  precious  life  in 
the  war  to  save  the  Union. 

Chancellor  Brown  in  some  way  missed  being  educated  in  the 
New  York  schools,  but  he  has  been  pretty  well  recompensed  for  it 
by  life  in  a  vigorous  pioneer  environment  and  by  training  in  one 
of  the  very  best  state  normal  schools  in  the  country,  at  Blooming- 
ton,  Illinois,  and  at  the  State  University  of  Michigan,  a  university 
which  was  the  great  leader  of  the  state  university  movement  in 
America,  the  most  marvelous  development  of  democratic  institu- 
tions of  real  university  grade  that  has  appeared  in  the  long  history 
of  world  education.  Spending  a  year  in  Germany,  he  began  teach- 
ing at  the  University  of  Michigan,  and  soon  earned  a  professor- 
ship which  was  continued  at  the  University  of  California.  This  led 
him  to  know  how  states  and  universities  may  work  together  for 
the  profit  of  each,  a  little  better  than  we  in  New  York  all  realize. 
That  knowledge  produced  the  best  history  of  the  American  middle 
schools  that  has  been  written.  Those  are  the  schools  of  American 
creation  which  are  at  once  the  expression  of  our  democracy  and 
the  connecting  link  in  American  education;  which  go  further 
than  any  class  of  schools  in  other  national  systems  of  education 
to  give  all  children  their  even  chance.  That  book  and  the  work 
that  was  behind  it  raised  him  to  a  place  in  the  teachers'  guild  which 
is  honored  by  all  the  pedagogues  and  many  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States.  In  turn  that  lifted  him  to  the  office  of  United 
States  Commissioner  of  Education,  and  it  may  be  suspected  that 
the  call  to  your  Chancellorship  came  in  happy  juxtaposition  with 
his  discovery  of  the  tribulations,  and  perhaps  the  emptyhanded- 
ness,  of  an  excellent  teacher  and  a  virile  pedagogical  author  in  a 
public  office.     However  that  may  be,  it  was  high  time  to  come 


99 

home.  It  is  splendid  to  go  out  west  and  gather  up  the  thinking 
and  the  doings  of  pioneer  people,  and  work  with  universities  that 
express  their  highest  aspirations,  but  it  is  well  for  the  young  men 
who  do  that  to  come  home  when  they  reach  the  place  Doctor 
Brown  had  gained,  and  most  certainly  so  if  there  are  great  uni- 
versities in  the  home  state  that  ask  them  to  come  and  lead  them. 

To  be  sure,  not  many  of  us  have  been  accustomed  to  associate 
Chancellor  Brown  with  a  university  presidency.  He  has  seemed  to 
fill  the  concept  of  a  professor  to  the  full,  but  we  have  never  recog- 
nized the  readiness  to  give  pain  or  the  strength  to  endure  it  which 
President  Seth  Low,  when  at  the  head  of  Columbia,  used  to  say 
were  the  necessary  attributes  of  a  university  president.  We  have 
never  thought  of  the  qualities  in  him  which  can  deal  with  faculties 
as  well  as  with  students,  and  can  speak  to  the  public  in  such  de- 
cisive and  authoritative  ways,  as  we  are  accustomed  to  see  setting 
so  lightly  on  the  shoulders  of  the  successful  university  presidents. 
But  we  have  no  apprehensions.  A  good  jurist  may  never  be  a 
great  lawyer,  but  a  great  lawyer  can  cultivate  the  temperament  and 
the  habits  of  a  first-rate  jurist.  Not  all  the  university  presidents 
have  the.  attributes  of  great  teachers,  but  a  real  university  will 
sustain  a  great  teacher  in  the  chancellor's  or  the  president's  office; 
and  it  will  be  surprising  if  this  one  does  not  develop  the  attributes 
of  his  peers. 

The  State  that  chartered  this  university  congratulates  her  upon 
calling  such  a  son  of  the  State  back  to  his  just  inheritance  and  to 
her  ennobling  service.  All  in  all,  the  day  is  a  radiant  one  in  the 
history  of  this  university,  and  the  State  of  New  York  expresses 
to  New  York  University  and  to  its  new  chancellor  the  felicitations 
and  the  good  wishes  of  the  millions  of  people  and  of  that  mighty 
complexity  of  moral,  intellectual,  industrial,  and  commercial  activi- 
ties which  enter  into  the  Constitution  and  are  concerned  about  the 
healthy  life  and  the  genuine  progress  of  the  Empire  State. 


WHAT    IS    EXPECTED    OF    DISTRICT    SUPER 
INTENDENTS 


WHAT    IS    EXPECTED    OF    DISTRICT    SUPERINTEND- 
ENTS1 

I  would  not  disguise  the  fact  that  I  have  more  real  satis- 
faction in  this  meeting  of  newly  chosen  district  superintendents, 
all  with  their  new  and  higher  standing,  powers,  and  functions 
established  in  the  Education  Law,  than  in  any  educational 
gathering  I  have  attended  in  many  years.  This  is  the  first  con- 
crete result  of  a  campaign  for  uplifting  the  country  schools  that 
was  stoutly,  and  often  subtly,  resisted,  and  that  was  more  than 
once  menaced  with  humiliating  failure.  It  was  a  longer  and 
more  serious  struggle  than  it  should  have  been.  The  public  under- 
standing of  the  matter  was  much  confused,  and  it  required  as 
much  explanation  and  argument  to  accomplish  the  absolutely 
obvious  thing  in  New  York  school  administration  as  ought  to  be 
necessary  to  carry  a  presidential  election  or  an  amendment  to  the 
Federal  Constitution.  There  are  many  here  today  who  became 
real  veterans  in  that  long  campaign,  and  they  may  be  assured  that 
I  am  glad  to  see  them  here.  It  is  not  strange  if  we  have  something 
of  the  feeling  of  old  soldiers  who  carry  forlorn  hopes  to  glory. 
With  sincere  appreciation  of  the  constancy  and  the  efficiency  of 
so  many  in  this  good  cause,  it  is  a  little  difficult  to  speak  of  one, 
but  it  really  ought  to  be  said  that  a  lion's  share  of  commendation 
ought  to  go  to  Dr  Thomas  E.  Finegan,  Third  Assistant  Commis- 
sioner of  Education,  for  the  unanswerable  and  always  good- 
natured  ways  in  which  he  has  shaped  up  the  arguments,  the  keen- 
ness with  which  he  has  scented  ambuscades,  and  the  absolutely 
unrelenting  earnestness  with  which  he  has  braced  up  the  troops 
on  every  part  of  the  field.  It  is  fortunate  that  he  is  to  have  much 
to  do  with  administering  the  system.  Many  of  you  know  much 
of  country  schools,  but  there  is  not  one  of  you  that  knows  more  of 
them  than  he  does.  He  will  speak  to  you  in  a  little  time.  I  have 
something  of  the  feeling  that  I  might  well  leave  it  to  him  to  do 
all  the  speaking,  but  I  confess  that  I  wanted  a  part  in  the  exulta- 
tion and  I  would  have  no  doubt  in  any  mind  as  to  the  measure  of 


1  Address  given  before  the  rural  education  section  of  the  New  York  State 
Teachers  Association  at  the  State  Normal  College,  Albany,  November  28, 
1911. 

103 


104 

my  concern  and  of  my  expectations  about  this  epoch-making  move- 
ment in  New  York  education. 

You  have  been  appointed  superintendents  of  the  rural  schools. 
There  are  two  hundred  and  seven  of  you,  almost  twice  as  many 
superintendents  as  there  were  school  commissioners.  The  old 
districts  were  generally  so  large  that  real  supervision  was  impossi- 
ble, even  if  the  old  law  had  contemplated  it,  which  it  did  not. 
Putting  two  districts  where  there  was  one  before  is  an  important 
factor  in  increasing  the  efficiency  of  supervision.  That  gives 
the  superintendent  a  much  better  chance  to  do  something  worth 
while,  but  whether  he  does  it  or  not  depends  upon  himself.  The 
Education  Department  expects  much  of  each,  and  will  do  all  it  can 
to  help  each  to  do  conspicuously  good  work;  it  will  censure  a 
superintendent  for  indifference  and  will  remove  him  for  wilfully 
or  ignorantly  violating  either  the  letter  or  the  spirit  of  the  new 
law.  This  is  plain  language,  but  plain  language  is  best.  It  would 
be  absurd  to  characterize  it  as  a  menace  or  a  threat.  It  is  in  the  in- 
terest of  two  hundred  and  seven  officials  whom  the  law  places  under 
my  supervision,  every  one  of  whom  starts  out  with  my  confidence 
and  carries  with  him  my  good  wishes.  It  is  for  the  sake  of  a  per- 
fect understanding.  I  have  my  responsibility  as  well  as  you  yours. 
What  I  say  is  in  the  discharge  of  that  responsibility. 

It  is  well  to  be  much  more  explicit  and  to  tell  you  in  detail  what 
the  Education  Department  expects  of  you. 

In  the  first  place  it  expects  that  you  will  be  free  and  independent 
school  superintendents.  It  can  not  be  said  too  often  that  the  com- 
mon schools  are  to  be  kept  free  from  all  political  or  denominational 
partisanship.  Officers  of  the  schools  are  to  assert  this  and  exemplify 
it.  They  are  to  bar  out  everything  to  which  any  patron  of  the 
schools  can  justly  object.  Above  all,  they  are  not  to  descend  to  any 
course  of  partisan  conduct  to  which  fifty,  or  twenty,  or  one  pet- 
cent  of  the  people  may  be  conscientiously  opposed.  They  are  to  at- 
tend to  the  schools  very  exclusively.  The  plain  English  of  this  is 
that  they  are  not  to  help  run  political  machines ;  they  are  not  to  do 
political  work  for  leaders  or  committees.  They  are  to  hold  their 
own  opinions  and  vote  as  they  please,  but  they  are  not  to  make 
themselves  obnoxious  to  any  by  exerting  any  influence  of  their 
position  as  superintendent  of  schools  to  effect  nominations  or  get 
votes  for  a  ticket  on  election  day.  The  school  organization  is  to 
offend  none ;  it  is  to  count  upon  the  support  of  all.  This  is  at  once 
sound  principle  and  good  policy.  You  will  be  expected  to  regard  it 
conscientiously. 


io5 

You  will  of  course  seek  to  enlarge  your  knowledge  and  im- 
prove your  professional  qualifications.  It  is  one  of  the  very  strong 
points  of  the  new  law  that  it  excludes  the  uneducated  from  these 
superintendencies.  You  have  gained  certificates  of  your  ability  to 
teach  in  the  schools  of  the  State  without  further  examination.  That 
means  much,  but  if  there  is  one  among  you  who  thinks  it  is  enough 
he  is  doomed  to  failure.  Read  systematically  for  the  enlargement 
of  your  knowledge.  Of  course  keep  up  with  the  current  news.  But 
there  is  a  vast  difference  between  knowledge  and  news.  Appreciate 
it  and  act  accordingly.  Efficient  school  superintendents  must  have 
knowledge,  not  merely  the  technical  rules  of  arithmetic  and  gram- 
mar, but  of  the  world's  stores  of  literature.  No  one  really  has  any 
hold  upon  that  without  the  sincere  desire  to  tighten  his  grasp.  If 
you  have  that,  your  grasp  upon  administration,  and  courses  of  study, 
and  methods  of  teaching,  and  all  such,  may  come  very  quickly  and 
easily  to  those  of  you  who  are  active.  But  if  you  are  long  on  frills 
and  pretense,  and  short  on  the  substance  of  knowledge;  if  you  are 
without  the  elements  of  intellectual  growth,  your  rising  sun  will  be 
obscured  by  a  cloud  and  is  even  liable  to  drop  out  of  the  heavens 
altogether. 

The  law  provides  that  a  district  superintendent  "  shall  devote 
his  whole  time  to  the  performance  of  the  duties  of  his  office  and 
shall  not  engage  in  any  other  business  or  profession."  That  is  good 
English,  easily  understood.  It  will  not  be  construed  so  as  to  take 
its  vitality  out  of  it.  You  may  not  practise  law,  or  medicine,  or 
seek  insurance,  or  till  a  farm,  while  holding  this  office.  The  law 
also  says  that  when  you  are  not  engaged  in  the  clerical  and  adminis- 
trative work  of  your  office,  you  shall  be  visiting  and  inspecting  the 
schools.  You  understand  that :  do  not  get  confused  about  it.  How 
truly  you  observe  all  this  will  soon  be  known  to  the  Third  Assistant 
Commissioner  of  Education,  and  he  is  bound  to  act  upon  what  he 
knows.  Be  so  square  and  true  about  it  that  he  will  have  no  ques- 
tion marks  against  your  name. 

For  your  own  sakes  I  bid  you  to  read,  and  reread  now  and  then, 
section  393  of  the  Education  Law.  It  is  not  pleasing  reading  for 
a  public  assemblage,  but  it  contains  good  propositions  to  commune 
with  in  secret.  It  bears  upon  the  relations  of  superintendents  to 
the  sale  of  books,  furniture,  apparatus,  and  the  like  to  the  schools ; 
co  contracts  made  by  trustees ;  and  to  gifts  and  rewards  for  exert- 
ing official  influence  in  favor  of  the  purchase  of  any  school  supplies 
or  for  recommending  the  employment  of  a  teacher.     There  is  no 


io6 

need  of  studying  this  section  to  see  just  how  far  one  may  go  with- 
out violating  the  law.  The  principle  is  absolute  that  a  school  super- 
intendent can  not  lawfully  accept  any  emolument  beyond  his  salary 
for  the  exercise  of  his  official  influence  or  authority.  He  must 
understand  that  completely. 

If  sections  393  and  394  of  the  Education  Law  claim  the  secret 
contemplation  of  superintendents,  there  can  be  nothing  secret  about 
section  395.  All  of  its  fourteen  subdivisions  deserve  to  be  printed 
large  and  posted  in  the  schoolhouses.  It  declares,  not  what  the 
superintendent  is  prohibited  from  doing,  but  what  he  is  required  to 
do.  Where  the  law  directs  that  certain  definite  things  shall  be  done 
and  creates  the  officers  to  do  them,  the  people  are  justified  in  ex- 
pecting that  there  will  be  results. 

It  is  expected  that  the  schoolhouses  will  be  cleaned  and  reno- 
vated and  made  sanitary  and  comfortable.  It  is  expected  that  out- 
buildings will  be  made  decent  and  convenient,  free  from  any  im- 
moral stains  and  suitable  for  the  free  use  of  children.  Do  not 
evade  this  thing  and  of  course  do  not  bluster  about  it.  Talk  of  it 
without  hesitation.  Expect  that  the  teacher  will  help.  See  the 
trustee  about  it.  If  necessary,  tell  him  what  should  be  done  and 
how  to  do  it.  Assume  that  he  will  be  glad  to  do  it.  If  he  should 
refuse,  then  require  him  to  do  it.  Do  not  require  too  often,  but 
there  will  be  many  times  when  you  will  have  to  require,  and  when 
such  times  come  be  sure  that  you  follow  the  matter  to  the  very  end. 

It  is  expected  that  out  of  all  this  there  will  be  a  fresh  impulse 
toward  new  buildings  in  the  places  of  such  as  are  unsuitable  for 
use  and  beyond  repair.  The  law  leaves  less  excuse  for  disreputable 
schoolhouses  in  New  York  than  in  any  other  state.  Keep  sane  but 
be  persistent  about  the  matter.  Talk  with  the  people  in  their 
homes,  induce  district  meetings  to  discuss  it,  and  be  on  hand  your- 
self to  show  pictures  and  plans  of  new  houses  that  will  stir  the 
pride  of  the  village  or  the  neighborhood.  The  Education  Depart- 
ment will  provide  the  material  to  aid  you. 

Next  spring  as  the  snow  is  disappearing,  when  the  colts  begin  to 
kick  up,  and  the  cows  begin  to  look  for  the  first  blades  of  green 
grass,  and  the  hens  begin  to  scratch  on  the  sunny  sides  of  the  barns, 
and  the  boys  must  play  leapfrog,  it  will  be  time  for  raking  off  the 
school  grounds,  straightening  the  walks,  and  setting  out  a  tree  and 
a  shrub  or  two. 

There  is  a  direction  in  this  law  that  you  hold  meetings  of 
trustees   and   advise  with   them   and   counsel   them   in   relation  to 


107 

the  interests  of  the  schools.  That  is  a  new  and  an  important 
provision.  Find  the  convenient  time  and  place  where  you  can  get 
five  or  ten  trustees  together,  and  have  dinner  in  company  and  talk 
over  buildings  and  teachers  and  courses  of  study.  Let  them  do  all 
the  talking  they  will ;  but  answer  criticisms,  explain  needs  and  diffi- 
culties, and  bind  them  together  in  the  sincere  determination  to  have 
the  most  attractive  schoolhouses  and  the  most  vital  teaching  in 
your  supervisory  district.  Make  sure  that  the  first  meeting  is  so 
interesting  that  all  will  want  to  come  to  the  next  one. 

And  here  we  are  again  around  to  the  teacher  and  the  things 
taught,  but  we  have  come  to  this  part  of  the  circle  this  time  with 
a  new  and  larger  opportunity  to  do  something  worth  while.  I  ad- 
monish you  to  be  exacting  yet  just,  firm  yet  kind,  aggressive  yet 
balanced  and  sane.  Much  more  is  expected  of  you  than  we  have 
had  from  the  school  commissioners.  Each  of  you  has  had  much 
of  the  training  and  not  a  little  of  the  experience  of  the  teacher. 
You  have  lived  in  the  atmosphere  and  you  are  moved  by  the  spirit 
of  the  school  system.  Do  by  teachers  as  you  would  be  done  by  and 
as  the  interests  of  children  and  the  progress  of  the  New  York 
school  system  require.  Help  the  young  teachers  and  try  to  keep  the 
older  ones  zestful  and  happy.  But  the  teaching  must  be  progressive 
and  vitalizing,  and  the  fact  that  it  is  must  be  evidenced  by  the 
children  in  their  homes. 

You  have  been  commissioned  to  lead  the  school  work  of  several 
towns.  Do  not  hesitate  to  take  the  lead.  Show  that  you  are  the 
superintendent  by  superintending.  Embrace  every  fair  opportun- 
ity to  quicken  public  sentiment  through  the  newspapers  and  by 
speaking  at  all  manner  of  gatherings.  When  you  write  and  speak 
do  it  as  well  as  you  can.  Try  to  gain  a  sense  of  educational  per- 
spective, by  which  I  mean  try  to  have  a  sane  appreciation  of  edu- 
cational values ;  remember  that  not  half  that  is  to  be  learned  is  in 
textbooks,  and  that  children  are  justified  in  rebelling  against  teach- 
ing that  has  no  life  or  juice  in  it.  Fall  in  with  the  very  common 
thought  of  the  day  and  associate  doing  with  thinking  in  teaching. 
Make  certain  that  the  children  are  trained  soundly  in  English,  and 
in  simple  mathematics,  and  in  truthfulness,  and  in  manners ;  mix  in 
rational  sports,  regard  for  health,  knowledge  of  the  earth,  and  love 
for  animals.  Adjure  teachers  to  train  children  to  respect  labor  and 
to  do  things,  never  losing  sight  of  the  fact  that  while  nothing 
can  excuse  any  American  child  from  a  mastery  of  the  fundamentals 
of  an  English  education,  yet  the  boy  who  is  long  on  training  a 


ioS 

horse,  or  sailing  a  boat,  or  raising  corn,  or  making  a  wagon,  and  a 
little  short  on  the  literary  side  of  things,  is  likely  to  be  a  larger 
and  a  more  useful  man  than  his  mate  who  is  quick  and  exact  in  the 
schoolroom  but  seems  unable  to  get  hold  of  something  which  he 
can  do  to  earn  a  living  and  which  the  world  must  have  done.  But 
we  are  not  forced  to  an  election  between  these  children  with  differ- 
ing traits  and  tendencies.  Both  of  them,  all  of  them,  are  to  be 
trained  in  both  culture  and  efficiency.  Equalizing  advantages  some- 
what, making  absolutely  sure  of  the  fundamentals,  we  are  to  give 
special  gifts  or  propensities  their  opportunities. 

I  advise  you  to  encourage  the  schools  to  interest  the  pupils  in  the 
agricultural  and  mechanical  and  homemaking  industries.  It  is  to 
be  done  through  the  ingenuity  and  versatility  of  the  teachers. 
School  literature  is  full  of  this  thing,  and  you  may  easily  work  it 
into  the  schools.  It  is  fascinating  to  children.  If  I  thought  it 
would  work  harm  to  the  reading  and  writing  and  numbers,  I  would 
oppose  it.  I  know  it  will  work  to  their  advantage.  If  I  thought  it 
would  keep  pupils  from  going  to  high  school  and  college,  I  would 
oppose  it.  I  think  it  will  send  more  to  the  higher  schools.  It  will 
broaden  the  higher  schools  or  at  least  it  will  concentrate  their  in- 
tensiveness  upon  the  work  that  has  the  largest  claims.  The  vital 
need  of  the  educational  work  of  this  country  is  the  training  of 
pupils  in  manual  and  vocational  efficiency.  What  helps  the  hands 
of  pupils  will  help  their  heads.  What  is  needed  is  greater  respect 
for  all  manner  of  work,  and  special  enthusiasm  for  some  particular 
work.  Too  many  never  have  any  enthusiasm  for  anything. 
Never  let  go  of  what  is  in  the  books,  but  encourage  the  schools  to 
do  whatever  will  arouse  the  special  interest  of  pupils  in  something. 

Why  not  public  commendation  for  the  neatest  schoolhouse  and 
the  best  kept  grounds  in  your  supervisory  district,  as  the  railroads 
give  for  the  best  kept  section  along  the  road?  Why  not  a  competi- 
tion between  the  schools  in  a  town  or  in  the  district  over  the  farm 
products  raised,  or  the  hand  work  done  by  boys  and  that  done  by 
girls  ?  Encourage  the  ingenuity  of  teachers  in  initiating  movements 
which  can  do  no  harm  and  will  arouse  the  interest  and  appeal  to  the 
pride  of  children  and  parents. 

The  teachers  institutes  have  been  discontinued.  They  were  good 
in  their  day,  but  their  day  is  past.  The  teachers  are  at  the  very 
beginning  more  thoroughly  trained  than  they  used  to  be.  They  do 
not  need  so  much  lecturing  and  stimulating  as  they  did  before  the 
uniform  examinations  were  established  and  the  literature  and  other 


109 

helps  for  teachers  were  so  prolific.  What  they  do  need  is  frequent 
conference  with  the  superintendent  and  among  themselves.  You 
are  to  arrange  such  conferences.  They  may  be  by  neighborhoods, 
or  towns,  or  two  towns.  They  should  of  course  be  in  a  perfectly 
healthy  environment  where  all  may  be  glad  to  go.  They  should  be 
for  a  territory  which  will  enable  all  to  come-  in  the  morning  and 
return  at  night.  A  good  nutritious  dinner  at  reasonable  expense 
should  be  arranged.  Then  there  should  be  a  live  conference  on 
the  everyday  interests  of  the  schools.  Something  of  the  success 
of  these  conferences  will  depend  upon  the  settings  of  the  room  you 
meet  in.  It  would  be  better  to  sit  around  a  table  where  each 
may  look  all  the  others  in  the  face,  than  in  a  stiffly  arranged  school- 
room or  church.  You  will  have  to  have  plenty  of  good,  live  ma- 
terials for  these  conferences.  You  will  know  where  to  get  these 
materials.  But  give  the  teachers  every  opportunity  to  tell  their 
troubles  and  ask  their  questions.  Having  done  that,  confer  about 
the  schoolhouse  and  grounds,  and  about  the  school  library  and  the 
appliances  and  apparatus.  Confer  about  the  work  in  general  and 
about  the  adaptations  to  particular  localities  or  individuals.  Confer 
about  what  the  teachers  are  doing  for  self-improvement.  Confer, 
I  say ;  do  not  lecture.  Do  not  do  it  in  a  stilted  way  but  in  an  easy, 
familiar  way,  so  that  all  may  have  an  inclination  to  enter  into  the 
matter,  and  may  go  home  at  the  end  with  the  feeling  that  it  was 
worth  while  to  attend.  Let  the  gathering  be  small  enough  for  a 
conference,  and  insist  that  it  shall  be  a  conference.  Avoid  formal 
or  heavy  papers.  You  will  not  need  stenographers.  Keep  agents 
out.  They  may  have  their  place,  but  it  is  not  there.  Do  not  expect 
some  one  from  the  State  Department;  carry  forward  these  confer- 
ences on  your  own  account.  Do  not  wind  them  up  with  a  dance. 
Act  freely  and  hold  them  often.  In  a  word,  establish  relations 
with  the  teachers  in  your  district  similar  to  those  which  exist  be- 
tween an  efficient  superintendent  and  the  teachers  in  a  city  or  vil- 
lage. Begin  to  assume  that  the  everlasting  country  school  problem 
is  really  solved. 

Of  course  you  will  look  after  the  teachers  training  classes,  and 
you  will  be  well  known  at  the  normal  schools.  You  should  steadily 
seek  to  reinforce  these  institutions  and  connect  your  schools  with 
them  so  that  the  schools  will  be  reinforced  by  them. 

You  are  to  advise  the  trustees  as  to  the  employment  of  teachers, 
the  adoption  of  textbooks,  and  the  purchase  of  library  books  and 
supplies.     Do  it  freely  if  you  really  know  what  you  are  talking 


no 

about.  If  you  are  a  little  uncertain  make  a  business  of  finding  out 
so  that  you  can  talk  confidently.  Your  success  will  depend  very 
largely  upon  the  new  teachers  employed,  upon  fitting  teachers  into 
the  places  to  which  they  are  best  adapted,  and  upon  the  books  and 
appliances  which  are  provided  for  the  schools.  Out  of  all  this  the 
new  spirit  of  the  schools  must  grow.  As  this  duty  will  be  very  com- 
mon and  extremely  important,  you  are  likely  to  see  much  trouble  in 
connection  with  it.  You  certainly  will  unless  you  have  firm  ground 
under  your  feet  and  act  without  fear  or  favor.  Under  no  circum- 
stances do  anything  in  this  connection  under  influence,  persuasion, 
or  threat.  Think  matters  all  over  for  yourself  and  do  just  what 
you  think  is  for  the  best.  More  trouble  comes  to  public  officers 
because  of  their  commendable  desire  to  please  some  friends,  or 
through  their  unworthy  desire  to  show  their  powers,  than  from  any 
other  cause.  Bend  to  nothing  of  this  kind.  Stand  up  straight,  lean- 
ing neither  forward  nor  backward.  Have  reasons  for  what  you  do, 
whether  you  think  it  necessary  to  state  them  or  not.  Be  able  to  look 
any  man  or  woman  in  the  eye.  Let  the  consequences  be  what  they 
may,  bear  your  own  responsibility  in  ways  that  satisfy  your  own 
minds  and  consciences,  and  let  other  people  carry  the  responsibility 
that  belongs  to  them. 

It  would  be  well  to  announce  a  certain  day  in  each  week  when 
you  will  be  at  home,  so  that  all  who  may  want  to  come  to  see  you 
may  count  upon  finding  you.  Apparently  it  should  be  a  day  when 
teachers  are  free  from  the  schools.  You  are  bound  to  know  the 
roads  in  your  district  as  well  as  the  mail  carrier  does,  and  you  ought 
to  be  as  familiar  with  all  the  homes  as  is  the  tax  collector.  An  offi- 
cial visit  to  a  school  is  not  made  by  a  look  at  the  schoolhouse. 
Work  half  a  day  with  a  school  and  make  a  visit  accomplish  some- 
thing worth  while.  Scrutinize  all  the  parts  of  the  building  and  out- 
buildings, and  look  to  the  furnishings  and  appliances.  If  there  is  a 
nuisance  on  the  premises,  require  that  it  be  abated  at  once  as  the 
law  amply  empowers  you  to  do.  If  the  building  needs  repairs  or  if 
the  teacher  is  without  conveniences  for  her  work,  go  to  see  the 
trustee  and  arrange  to  have  things  made  right.  Make 
your  visit  very  welcome  to  the  teacher.  Do  not  sneak  and 
do  not  bluster.  Do  not  let  the  thermometer  drop  forty  degrees 
while  you  are  there.  More  emphatically  still,  do  not  flatter.  Just 
be  kind  and  frank  and  capable.  Know  what  in  the  way  of  spirit 
and  efficiency  ought  to  be  there,  and  work  to  get  it  there.  Bring  in 
something  that  will  brace  up  the  school,  make  the  teacher  a  little 


Ill 

more  earnest,  a  little  more  courageous,  and  a  little  more  sure- 
footed. If  it  is  necessary  to  suggest  things  to  her,  as  it  generally 
will  be,  do  it  without  hesitating  but  in  ways  that  will  gratify  her  if 
she  has  many  of  the  attributes  of  a  true  teacher.  Before  you 
correct  her  it  would  be  well  to  make  sure  that  what  you  propose  is 
consistent  with  the  educational  policies,  theories,  and  methods  which 
the  training  classes  and  normal  schools  have  been  instilling  into 
her.  Perhaps  it  would  be  better  to  see  first  whether  she  has  the 
school  in  her  hands,  holds  the  interest  and  respect  of  pupils,  and  is 
giving  them  plenty  to  do.  If  she  has,  it  might  be  well  to  let  her 
keep  on  doing  it  in  her  own  way,  whether  her  way  seems  to  meet 
the  sacred  canons  of  the  higher  pedagogical  criticism  or  not.  If  she 
has  not,  then  go  in  and  try  to  improve  matters,  with  the  assurance 
that  you  will  not  make  them  worse,  and  with  knowledge  that  it  is 
your  business,  and  with  some  confidence  that  it  is  within  your  power 
to  make  them  better.  Do  not  gossip  around  the  district.  Do  not 
have  profound  secrets  or  many  confidences.  Do  not  make  promises 
to  be  performed  longer  ahead  than  tomorrow  or  the  next  day. 
When  you  enter  into  an  engagement,  take  out  your  notebook  and 
put  it  down,  and  mark  it  off  when  you  have  done  as  you  agreed. 
Do  not  cross  bridges  before  you  get  to  them,  and  when  you  do  cross 
them  march  over  like  an  old  soldier,  erect  and  right  in  the  middle 
of  the  road. 

You  will  have  to  use  your  sense  as  to  the  exercise  of  your  powers. 
The  law  always  assumes  that  powers  will  be  exercised  by  rational 
officers.  That  does  not  mean  that  an  officer  shall  be  left  to  himself 
to  determine  what  the  law  is  or  what  it  means;  nor  does  it  mean 
that  an  officer  may  decide  whether  a  law  shall  be  executed  or  not. 
The  purpose  of  the  law  must  always  be  considered;  mere  expres- 
sions must  never  be  taken  by  themselves  and  invoked  to  overthrow 
or  thwart  the  manifest  intent.  Your  duties  and  functions  are  gen- 
eral. You  will  have  to  do  some  things  which  are  not  specified  in  the 
Constitution  and  the  written  laws.  The  main  purpose  of  the  Educa- 
tion Law  concerning  you  is  that  you  shall  be  capable  and  assiduous 
in  building  up  the  schools  and  in  quickening  education  in  your 
districts.  You  are  to  do  whatever  you  can  do  that  will  promote 
that  end,  unless  it  violates  some  law  or  invades  some  right. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  you  will  distinguish  between  the  manage- 
ment of  the  business  interests  of  the  schools  through  the  district 
meetings  and  the  trustee  system,  and  the  supervision  of  the  instruc- 
tion through  superintendents.     Beyond  tendering  friendly  advice 


112 

you  should  not  interfere  with  school  meetings  or  the  doings  of  the 
trustees,  except  in  cases  where  the  law  expressly  empowers  you  to 
give  directions.  As  to  the  instructional  work,  you  should  not  allow 
the  meetings  or  the  trustees  to  do  more  than  give  you  friendly  ad- 
vice. As  to  the  teaching,  you  should  know  what  needs  to  be  done, 
and  see  that  it  is  done.  But  by  all  means,  officers  chosen  to  pro- 
mote the  same  good  ends  should  treat  each  other  with  every  con- 
sideration and  work  together  harmoniously  and  effectually. 

The  new  law  provides  for  the  payment  of  your  official  expenses 
by  the  State  up  to  a  limit  of  three  hundred  dollars  a  year.  That  is 
an  important  factor  in  the  new  plans  for  keeping  you  traveling 
about  your  districts.  Your  bills  will  have  to  be  sworn  to  and  they 
must  be  approved  by  the  Commissioner  of  Education.  None  but 
moneys  which  you  actually  pay  out  will  be  approved.  Now  let 
there  be  no  foolishness  about  this  thing.  Carry  a  memorandum 
book,  and  enter  every  item  you  pay  out  and  at  the  time  you  do  it. 
Every  three  months  transfer  that  list  to  the  blank  forms  provided 
and  send  it  to  the  Department.  Be  exact  to  the  cent.  There  is  no 
need  of  bending  over  backward :  if  a  farmer  offers  you  a  dinner,  as 
farmers  are  prone  to  do,  eat  it  unless  there  is  danger  of  some  aber- 
ration of  mind  which  may  dispose  you  to  charge  the  State  for  it. 
It  is  hard  for  most  of  us  to  be  away  from  home,  and  when  your  duty 
requires  it  you  are  entitled  to  make  yourself  comfortable  if  you 
can.  But  whatever  else  you  do,  keep  your  integrity  and  independ- 
ence ;  they  are  the  mainstays  of  success  in  school  supervision. 

The  salary  paid  you  by  the  State  is  not  large.  But  you  have 
accepted  the  trust.  The  State  is  not  likely  to  increase  the  amount 
very  soon,  because  the  State  has  been  induced  to  assume  an  addi- 
ditional  burden  of  more  than  $150,000  for  this  rural  supervision, 
only  after  much  persuasion.  But  there  is  no  reason  why  the  super- 
visory district  should  not  add  to  the  superintendent's  salary.  If  he 
is  worth  more,  there  is  every  reason  why  that  should  be  done.  Such 
addition  to  the  salary  by  the  supervisory  district  is  the  only  ex- 
pense which  the  district  will  have  to  incur  for  school  supervision. 
The  State  pays  a  part  of  the  salaries  of  superintendents  in  the  cities 
and  villages,  but  not  the  whole  of  them,  as  it  now  does  in  the  farm- 
ing districts.  The  new  law  encourages  the  districts  to  add  to  your 
salaries.  It  can  be  done  by  the  supervisors  of  the  towns  in  the 
district.  I  do  not  advise  that  you  agitate  that  subject.  I  would 
not  fawn  upon  supervisors  and  disgust  them  if  they  are  self-res- 
pecting men.    You  can  not  expect  them  to  increase  your  salaries  un- 


"3 

less  the  sentiment  of  the  people  supports  it.  I  would  try  to  do  so 
much  for  the  schools  that  the  people  would  know  about  it  and  the 
common  sentiment  of  the  district  would  say  that  I  ought  to  be  a 
little  better  compensated.  Men  and  women  who  think  more  about 
success  than  about  wages  are  the  ones  who  in  the  end  get  the  most 
wages. 

You  are  the  advance  agents,  the  leaders  and  promoters,  of  an 
educational  revival  in  the  rural  districts  of  New  York.  Your  terri- 
tory reaches  to  the  remotest  corners  of  the  State.  It  lies  every- 
where beyond  the  boundaries  of  the  cities  and  the  villages  of  five 
thousand  people.  It  runs  through  all  the  valleys  and  lies  over  all  the 
hilltops  of  our  imperial  commonwealth.  Your  work  has  to  do  with 
all  the  homes.  It  has  much  to  do  with  the  potentiality  of  our  lands, 
with  the  volume  and  value  of  our  manufactures,  with  the  happiness 
of  the  people,  and  with  the  greatness  of  the  State  itself.  It  must  be 
a  rational,  not  an  emotional  or  spasmodic,  revival.  It  must  possess 
learning,  it  must  steadily  gather  in  knowledge  and  power,  it  must 
organize  with  expertness  and  fearlessness,  it  must  apply  pedagogi- 
cal methods  that  have  been  proved  to  be  of  worth,  and  it  must  exer- 
cise wisely  and  for  a  long  time,  the  powers  which  the  State  has  en- 
trusted to  it,  if  it  is  to  justify  the  recent  legislation  which  has 
given  it  existence  and  created  its  opportunity. 

You  are  all-important  factors  in  a  great  undertaking  which  is 
expected  to  mark  the  opening  of  a  new  era  in  New  York  education 
greater  than  any  that  has  gone  before  it.  In  a  year  or  two  there 
must  be  very  definite  results  in  every  county  of  the  State.  I  have 
not  dared  merely  to  appeal  to  you  to  bear  your  part  sanely  and 
bravely.  I  have  declared  what  is  expected  of  you.  There  is  noth- 
ing impossible,  indeed  nothing  extremely  difficult,  about  organizing 
an  enduring  educational  movement  which  will  further  uplift  the 
State  and  add  to  her  prestige  in  all  the  states.  I  anticipate  it  with 
entire  confidence.  You  may  be  assured  that  it  will  not  be  put  in 
jeopardy  by  any  failure  of  the  supervision  which  the  law  directs 
the  Education  Department  to  give  to  the  work  you  are  to  do.  The 
Department  is  intensely  in  earnest,  and  expects  to  be  exacting, 
even  unrelenting.  But  that  only  means  that  its  officers  want  to  join 
earnestly,  honestly  and  sanely  with  you,  and  want  you  to  join  in  the 
same  way  with  them,  in  a  very  serious  and  a  very  vital  undertaking, 
the  success  of  which  will  bring  honor  to  all  of  us,  and,  what  is 
vastly  more  important,  will  bring  great  advantage  to  the  people 
whom  we  cherish  and  to  the  State  which  we  are  all  anxious  and 
proud  to  serve. 


NO   MUMMIFIED  HISTORY  IN  NEW  YORK 

SCHOOLS 


NO  MUMMIFIED  HISTORY  IN  NEW  YORK  SCHOOLS1 

The  last  Legislature  did  the  inevitable  thing  and  made  the  office 
of  the  State  Historian  a  division  in  the  Education  Department.  It 
went  further  and  created  a  division  in  the  Department  to  supervise 
the  manner  in  which  all  public  records  of  the  State  and  of  the  coun- 
ties, cities,  and  towns  thereof  are  made  and  cared  for.  Of  course 
these  plans  articulate  together  and  are  expected  to  conserve,  and 
cherish,  and  magnify  our  history.  They  are  expected  to  make  the 
vital  history  of  the  country,  and  particularly  of  the  State,  available 
to  all  the  people  in  attractive  and  realistic  forms.  One  of  the  early 
expressions  of  the  movement  ought  to  appear  in  quickening  and  im- 
proving the  teaching  of  history  in  the  schools. 

There  is  no  state  with  a  more  resplendent  history  than  New 
York.  The  story  of  the  first  settlements,  of  the  progress  of  pioneer 
farming,  of  the  dealings  and  conflicts  with  the  Indians,  of  the  up- 
building of  our  commerce  and  manufactures,  of  the  development 
of  our  religious  and  political  institutions,  of  the  old  roads  which 
foreshadowed  the  newer  and  greater  ones,  of  the  habits  and  customs 
of  early  generations  which  have  influenced  the  doings  of  the  present 
generation,  of  the  deadly  battles  fought  and  the  political  policies 
established  by  our  fathers,  which  settled  the  character  of  the  State 
and  nation,  is  an  inheritance  which  is  not  exceeded  by  that  of  any 
people  in  the  world.  All  of  this  splendid  story  can  not  be  under- 
stood by  the  children  in  the  schools,  for  that  requires  long  lives  and 
mature  minds,  but  we  may  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  if 
we  teach  little  parts  of  it  so  that  children  become  really  interested, 
they  will  go  on  and  learn  about  other  parts  without  helps  beyond 
such  as  they  will  find  on  their  own  account.  The  story  truly  told  is 
so  fascinating  that  it  is  irresistible. 

The  point  of  this  little  paper  is  not  so  much  to  extend  the 
courses  in  history  as  if  is  to  make  the  teaching  vital  and  the  history 
attractive. 

There  are  now  two  quite  distinct  schools  of  history  writers  and 
teachers.  One  of  these,  which  we  may  call  the  old  school,  assumes 
that  one  who  has  participated  in  great  events  and  can  write  well, 


1  Address   before   the   history   section   of   the   New   York   State    Teachers 
Association,  at  Albany,  November  28,   191 1. 

117 


n8 

can  write  the  history  of  these  events.  It  assumes  that  one  who  had 
no  actual  part  in  the  events  but  is  an  educated  man  and  an  accom- 
plished writer,  may  qualify  himself  for  writing  the  history  of  them 
by  reading  all  that  others  have  written  about  them,  by  searching  out 
old  documents  bearing  upon  them  which  have  escaped  the  earlier 
writers,  and  by  going  over  the  grounds  where  the  events  occurred, 
occupying  the  point  of  view  and  entering  into  the  feelings  of  the 
actors,  and  working  himself  into  a  frame  of  mind  which  will  ex- 
press the  story  as  the  original  participants  in  the  events  might  if 
they  could  speak. 

The  other  and  newer  school  is  the  rather  natural  outgrowth  of 
the  universities.  It  occupies  the  critical  attitude  of  the  universities. 
It  is  more  destructive  than  creative.  It  is  more  professional  and 
pedantic  than  original  and  inspiring.  Its  work  is  done  in  the  study 
rather  than  by  searching  fields  and  following  streams.  Its  par- 
ticular satisfaction  is  in  calling  down  some  old  hero  because  he 
told  a  story  with  a  little  too  much  enthusiasm.  It  assumes  that 
having  had  a  part  in  the  events,  and  having  actual  sympathy  with 
one  side  or  the  other  in  those  events,  disqualifies  from  writing 
about  them.  It  even  assumes  that  no  one  has  any  business  to  write 
history  unless  he  has  been  trained  by  the  professors  of  history  in 
the  universities  to  question  everything  and  to  have  no  actual  feel- 
ing about  any  historical  fact.  It  pretends  to  treat  judicially  matters 
which  are  wholly  outside  of  and  apart  from  judicial  interpretation. 
It  makes  more  of  mummies  than  of  life. 

Let  us  illustrate.  A  professor  of  history  at  Dartmouth  College, 
if  he  were  a  disciple  of  this  school,  might  write  what  he  would 
call  a  judicial  history  of  the  battle  of  Gettysburg.  He  would  dis- 
regard the  motives  and  ignore  the  enthusiasms  of  the  contending 
armies.  He  would  say  that  the  partisanship  which  would  lead  a 
man  to  ofTer  his  life  to  his  country  would  make  him  unable  to 
appreciate  the  accepted  canons  of  historical  criticism  or  understand 
the  underlying  principles  of  historical  documentation.  He  would 
deal  only  with  generalities,  that  is,  the  written  orders,  the  generals, 
the  divisions  and  army  corps,  the  grand  movements,  the  figures  and 
the  result;  and  to  make  sure  that  no  one  would  think  him  preju- 
diced, or  any  more  interested  in  one  side  than  the  other,  he  would 
very  likely  leave  it  to  the  reader  to  come  to  his  own  conclusions 
about  it  all,  just  as  a  circuit  judge  leaves  it  to  a  jury  to  decide 
what  the  facts  are  when  the  evidence  is  circumstantial  and  con- 
flicting and  he  is  not  himself  sure  of  what  happened.     He  could 


ii9 

tell  us  that  the  battle  of  Gettysburg  was  fought  on  Thursday,  Fri- 
day, and  Saturday,  July  ist,  2d,  and  3d,  in  1863;  that  the  weather 
was  probably  hot;  that  there  were  201,817  men  engaged;  that  they 
marched  3354  miles  the  day  before  the  battle,  and  that  41,714  were 
killed;  and  that  all  this  was  the  unnecessary  consequence  of  some- 
thing that  our  fathers  mistakenly  let  slip  into  the  Constitution  on 
a  Saturday  or  a  Sunday  in  October  1789.  It  would  be  as  interest- 
ing to  boys  and  girls  and  their  fathers  and  mothers  as  a  railway 
track  or  a  tow  of  canal  boats  when  they  had  seen  hundreds  of  them. 
That  might  happen.  I  do  not  believe  it  would,  for  I  do  not 
believe  Dartmouth  would  stand  for  it  long.  It  is  all  speculation. 
Now  let  us  see  something  that  did  happen.  In  1854  a  fine  young 
fellow  by  the  name  of  Frank  Haskell  graduated  from  Dartmouth 
College.  He  was  born  in  Vermont,  taught  school  to  get  the  money 
to  go  to  college,  and  was  late  in  getting  through,  for  he  was  twenty- 
six.  But  he  quickly  made  up  for  his  delayed  college  course.  He 
was  a  classical  scholar,  intent  upon  work,  ready  for  a  frolic  and 
not  afraid  of  a  fight.  He  played  square  with  the  world,  formed 
opinions  and  had  unusual  gifts  in  narrating  facts  and  expressing 
himself.  He  went  to  Madison,  Wisconsin,  studied  law,  gained  ad- 
mission to  the  bar,  and  was  soon  in  successful  practice  and  a  citi- 
zen who  was  regarded  and  respected.  At  the  opening  of  the  Civil 
War  he  enlisted  in  the  Sixth  Wisconsin  regiment  and  soon  gained 
reputation  as  a  sagacious  and  daring  soldier.  He  was  a  mounted 
aide  to  General  Gibbon  at  Gettysburg,  and  carried  orders  and  in- 
formation to  far  points  on  the  field.  Such  a  young  man  in  such  a 
place  made  the  most  of  his  unparalleled  opportunities  for  seeing 
and  doing  things.  He  messed  with  the  generals  and  mixed  with  the 
men,  and  freely  offered  his  life  to  his  country  by  doing  whatever 
he  could  find  to  do,  without  regard  to  peril,  that  would  help  her 
in  her  crucial  hour.  He  was  wounded  enough  to  put  most  men  out 
of  commission  for  a  month,  and  he  had  two  horses  shot  under  him, 
but  he  never  let  go  of.  his  job.  He  was  among  the  first  to  see  the 
advance  of  Pickett's  division  for  the  grand  charge  on  the  after- 
noon of  the  third  day.  He  rode  along  the  crest  looking  for  the 
weakest  place  in  the  Union  lines.  The  Confederates  had  looked 
for  it  also.  He  found  the  thinnest  ranks  where  Webb's  brigade 
was  in  a  moment  to  meet  the  fiercest  onset  at  the  "  bloody  angle." 
He  looked  for  Hancock  and  Gibbon,  but  they  had  both  been 
wounded.  He  looked  for  anybody  with  authority  to  give  the  orders 
which  would  mend  the  break.     Finding  no  one,  he  flew  about  and 


120 

gave  the  orders  himself  just  as  though  all  the  straps  and  stars  in  the 
army  were  upon  or  behind  him.  He  rushed  a  couple  of  fairly  fresh 
regiments  into  the  breach,  and  when  the  blow  fell  he  was  right 
there  to  help  them  meet  it.  They  met  it  so  well  that  they  lost  half 
their  number,  but  what  was  left  gathered  in  four  thousand  pris- 
oners. Meade  and  Hancock  and  Gibbon  and  the  Congress  said  that 
he  had  done  as  much  as,  if  not  more  than,  any  other  one  man  for 
the  triumph  of  the  Union  arms  at  Gettysburg.  He  was  only  a 
lieutenant.     It  made  him  a  colonel  at  once. 

In  the  next  thirty  days  he  wrote  a  full  account  of  the  battle 
from  first  to  last.  He  had  no  thought  of  writing  for  publication. 
He  wrote  what  fills-  a  book.  Without  any  self-laudation  he  told 
his  young  brother  at  home  what  he  saw  and  heard,  how  he  felt 
and  what  he  did,  what  the  officers  and  men  did  and  said.  He  dealt 
with  men  and  things  and  events  in  particular.  He  described  move- 
ments and  incidents  so  that  the  reader  thrills  and  shivers.  He 
expressed  his  feelings  with  the  ardor  and  freedom  of  youth.  He 
gave  credit  with  a  generous  hand  and  without  regard  to  rank,  and 
he  handed  out  criticism  in  the  same  way.  For  example,  he  said 
that  Hooker  was  a  "  scoundrel,"  which  he  was  not ;  that  Sickles 
was  only  a  "  political  general  "  seeking  popularity  when  he  moved 
the  third  corps  to  the  other  ridge,  which  was  putting  it  too  strong; 
and  that  the  eleventh  corps  was  a  "  pack  of  cowards,"  which  was 
probably  overstating  the  matter.  But  it  all  came  hot  "  off  the  bat " 
of  a  gentleman,  a  scholar,  and  a  soldier,  who  had  been  all  over 
the  field  and  knew  and  could  tell  what  had  happened  and  how  it 
had  happened.  The  excitement  of  the  battle  doubtless  gave  him 
some  opinions  which  he  would  have  modified  in  later  years  if  he 
had  lived,  but  all  the  same  he  wrote  actual  history.  That  makes 
his  story  of  Gettysburg  very  real ;  and  he  consecrated  it  all  by 
giving  his  life  to  his  country  when  leading  his  new  regiment  at 
Cold  Harbor  the  next  summer. 

I  am  with  Professor  Mahaffy  of  Dublin  when  he  says,  "  Unless 
we  have  living  men  reproduced  with  their  passions  and  the  logic 
of  their  feeling,  we  have  no  real  human  history."  I  am  with 
Gibbon  who  believed  that  history  must  be  rich  in  imagination  and 
not  wanting  in  eloquence.  I  am  for  Fronde  with  his  inaccuracies, 
rather  than  with  any  other  who  avoids  positive  statements  and 
reduces  human  interest  in  the  subject  to  the  vanishing  point.  I 
am  with  Parkman  who  went  over  the  ground  and  mixed  with 
people  who  knew  or  had  heard.     I  am  with  Lord  Macaulay  when 


121 

* 

in  his  history  of  England  before  the  Restoration  he  says  that  he 
will  cheerfully  bear  the  reproach  of  having  descended  below  the 
dignity  of  history  if  he  can  succeed  in  placing  before  the  English 
of  the  nineteenth  century  a  true  picture  of  the  life  of  their  ancestors. 

No  one  is  for  ignoring  or  straining  the  truth  of  history.  Honest 
and  intelligent  imagination  that  adheres  to  essential  facts  but  takes 
the  loves  and  hates  of  actual  men  and  women  into  account,  comes 
nearer  the  truth  than  does  the  pessimist  who  rejects  everything 
but  positive  evidence,  necessarily  misinterprets  much  of  that,  and 
insists  that  partisans  are  hardly  capable  of  giving  evidence  at  all. 

One  who  helped  make  history,  if  he  has  the  other  accomplish- 
ments, can  write  it  better  than  those  who  had  no  part  in  making 
it;  and  no  one  can  hope  to  write  history  well  unless  he  can  put 
himself  in  spirit  and  sympathy  with  those  who  made  it.  He  must 
have  their  point  of  view,  their  enthusiasm,  and  their  grief  or  ex- 
ultation over  results,  before  he  can  make  it  very  effective  in  the 
lives  of  human  beings.  Even  those  who  are  not  in  sympathy  with 
the  writer  prefer  the  writings  of  one  who  has  feeling  in  his  theme, 
rather  than  of  one  who  takes  pride  in  his  remoteness  and  indiffer- 
ence. The  Confederate  veterans  would  rather  read  the  story  by 
Colonel  Haskell  of  what  happened  on  the  Union  side  at  Gettys- 
burg; and  the  Union  veterans  that  by  General  Pickett  of  what 
happened  on  the  Confederate  side,  than  any  story  by  a  historical 
philosopher  who  was  not  there  and  who  tries  to  write  judicially, 
when  the  whole  thing  was  one  of  arms  and  had  gone  beyond  the 
possibilities  of  judicial  determination. 

The  thing  we  are  speaking  of  is  not  an  exclusive  trade  at  all; 
it  is  to  be  saved  from  being  professionalized ;  it  is  far  more  a 
matter  of  knowledge,  of  intelligent  interest  and  literary  accomplish- 
ment, than  of  balancing  evidence  or  of  expert  training.  History 
consists  of  facts  infused  with  life  rather  than  of  mere  opinions. 
Of  course  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  philosophy  of  history,  a  treat- 
ment of  causes  and  effects,  a  connecting  of  results  and  an  explain- 
ing of  consequences,  but  that  is  wholly  beyond  the  children  in  the 
elementary  or  secondary  schools;  and,  aside  from  that,  it  is  in  the 
province  of  historical  or  philosophical  speculation,  and  not  in  the 
field  of  historical  fact  at  all. 

The  same  considerations  govern  the  teaching  as  the  writing  of 
history.  To  be  effectively  taught  it  will  have  to  be  done  by  parti- 
sans, whose  hearts  quicken  with  the  teaching  and  are  quickened  by 
it  as  it  progresses.     The  thing  taught  will  have  to  be  within  a 


122 

compass  which  pupils  can  grasp,  and  it  will  have  to  be  made  so 
clear,  so  full  of  human  action  and  interest,  will  have  to  move  in 
such  an  orderly  and  convincing  way,  that  normal  children  must  be 
enlightened,  entertained,  and  convinced  by  it. 

We  have  2,000,000  children  in  our  New  York  schools.  Large 
numbers  of  them  are  the  children  of  parents  who  are  new  in  the 
State  and  know  little  of  the  facts  and  the  spirit  of  our  history. 
We  had  1,800,000  souls  added  to  the  population  of  New  York 
State,  and  1,300,000  added  to  the  population  of  New  York  City, 
between  1900  and  1910.  In  other  words,  the  decade's  increase 
alone  would  make  great  cities  and  states  as  the  world  goes.  And 
there  are  vast  numbers  of  children  descended  from  early  settlers 
in  the  State  who  know  little  of  the  facts  and  feel  little  of  the 
inspiration  of  our  history.  It  is  very  vital  to  the  State  that  they 
shall  know  these  facts  and  feel  this  inspiration.  No  civilization 
lives  unto  itself  alone.  It  is  a  matter  of  intelligence,  of  feeling, 
and  of  relations  and  outlook.  A  civilization  treasures  what  its 
fathers  did  for  it,  and  it  is  urgent  about  what  it  aspires  to  do  for 
its  children  and  their  children.  Indeed,  loyalty  to  and  intelligence 
about  this  line  of  teaching  in  the  homes  and  in  the  schools  goes 
further  than  anything  else  to  determine  the  power  and  the  right 
of  a  civilization  to  endure. 

The  schools  of  all  peoples  are  expected  to  attend  to  the  matter. 
Frankly,  I  do  not  think  we  attend  to  it  as  well  as  we  ought.  We  are 
as  prodigal  of  our  history  as  of  our  lands,  and  woods,  and  waters, 
and  children.  We  need  to  conserve  and  care  more  for  all  of  them. 
The  people  need  to  help  the  schools  to  do  it  better.  Recall  the 
books,  and  statutes,  and  columns,  and  arches,  and  art  galleries, 
and  great  buildings  dedicated  to  statesmen,  and  soldiers,  and 
scholars,  and  artists  in  Rome  and  Madrid  and  Zurich  and  Berlin 
and  Amsterdam  and  Paris  and  Edinburgh  and  London,  and  every 
other  city  of  the  Old  World.  St  Petersburg  is  so  full  of  them 
that  it  is  mere  display  without  the  discrimination  in  selecting  sub- 
jects or  that  balance  between  show  and  understanding  which  is  the 
vital  basis  of  any  patriotism  or  any  civilization  that  is  of  much 
worth.  Stockholm,  one  of  the  fine  cities  of  the  world,  goes  all 
lengths  in  making  the  display  without  subjecting  herself  to  any 
criticism  for  ignorance  or  grossness.  Her  well-made  streets  and 
her  clean  squares  express  her  appreciation  of  the  intellectual  and 
martial  history  of  Sweden.  Opposite  the  palace  of  the  democratic 
king  an  art  gallery  of  great  merit  expresses  the  history  of  the  nation 


123 

to  a  people  free  from  the  burden  of  illiteracy.  The  arts  and  indus- 
tries and  the  intellectual  and  constitutional  evolution  of  Sweden  are 
all  admirably  represented.  Under  the  great  dome  there  is  the  mag- 
nificent painting  of  the  military  guard  bearing  home  on  their  should- 
ers through  the  deep  snows,  the  body  of  King  Charles  XII,  killed  in 
battle  with  the  Norwegians  after  Peter  the  Great  had  been  brought 
to  his  reckoning.  As  the  Swedish  women  look  upon  it  they  flush 
with  indignation  and  the  men  clinch  their  fists  and  renew  their 
oaths  of  loyalty  to  the  fatherland.  A  mile  or  two  away,  at  Skansen, 
in  the  park,  are  the  many  structures  which  hold  the  products  and 
portray  the  actual  life  of  Swedish  generations,  from  the  mud  hut  of 
the  barbarians  down  to  the  fine  city  which  is  the  abundant  fruitage 
of  the  high  civilization  that  has  resulted  from  the  ambition,  indus- 
try, valor  and  honor  of  Sweden.  And,  by  the  way,  the  military 
guards  at  Skansen  are  in  the  buff  and  blue,  the  leather  breeches  and 
top  boots,  the  great  coats  and  three-cornered  hats  of  Washington's 
army,  which  we  must  have  borrowed  from  Gustavus  Adolphus. 

That  we  have  not  done  such  things  as  these  very  largely  or 
always  with  the  best  of  judgment  is  not  because  we  are  lacking  in 
events  to  portray  or  history  to  teach.  The  history  of  Holland  and 
Britain,  indeed  the  history  of  all  intellectual  and  constitutional 
progress  in  all  lands,  is  our  inheritance.  But  we  have  to  go  no 
farther  back  than  the  first  settlements  upon  the  Hudson  river  to 
find  both  great  and  picturesque  events  to  illustrate  the  evolution 
of  the  material  state,  and  fascinating  stories  to  quicken  the  com- 
mercial, scholarly,  political,  and  military  doings  of  the  people.  We 
are  plutocrats  in  the  materials  that  must  touch  the  pride,  quicken 
the  heartbeats,  and  enlarge  the  sense  of  responsibility  of  every  one 
who  is  worth  his  salt  and  lives  upon  New  York  soil. 

There  is  hardly  a  town  in  this  State  that  is  without  its  historic 
episodes  and  traditions.  There  is  hardly  a  county  that  has  not  a 
shrine  made  sacred,  not  a  stream  that  has  not  been  crimsoned  by 
blood  spilt  for  the  rights  of  man.  To  say  nothing  of  the  names  of 
men,  think  of  what  Morningside  Heights,  and  Fort  Lee,  and 
Stony  Point,  and  Albany,  and  Schenectady,  and  Schoharie,  and 
Cherry  Valley,  and  Wyoming,  and  Oriskany,  and  Oswego,  and 
Saratoga,  and  Fort  Edward,  and  Lake  George,  and  Lake  Cham- 
plain,  and  Ticonderoga,  and  Crown  Point,  and  Plattsburg,  and 
many  others,  signify  in  the  cause  of  human  opportunity  and  Ameri- 
can nationality.  And  it  is  not  all  a  matter  of  soldiers  by  any 
means.    W^e  had  in  every  part  of  this  State,  at  a  very  early  day,  as 


124 

fine  a  pioneer  farming  civilization,  as  successful  manufacturing  and 
commercial  accomplishments,  as  the  world  has  even  seen.  We 
have  had  as  brave  and  fascinating  struggles  for  the  stability  of 
political  institutions,  as  much  self-sacrifice  for  the  upbuilding  of 
churches  and  for  their  freedom  and  harmony,  as  intelligent  and 
generous  and  abiding  a  faith  in  schools,  as  ever  honored  and  en- 
riched the  life  of  any  people  in  the  world.  It  is  all  in  our  history, 
it  is  expressed  in  our  institutions,  and  it  bears    upon  our  life. 

It  is  our  business  to  see  that  the  children  in  the  New  York 
schools,  for  their  own  good  and  for  the  country's  sake,  get  their 
proper  share  in  all  this.  They  are  to  get  the  parts  of  it  that  they 
can  assimilate,  and  get  it  at  times  and  in  forms  and  quantities  that 
will  be  good  for  their  patriotic  health.  If  they  become  really  con- 
cerned about  some  part  of  it,  they  will  be  about  other  parts  of  it. 
If  their  love  of  it  begins  to  grow,  it  will  keep  on  growing.  The 
generalities,  the  high  points,  the  speculations,  or  the  philosophy  of 
history,  are  not  of  much  concern  to  young  people.  They  want  the 
facts,  the  action,  of  it.  They  want  the  poetry  and  the  glamor  of 
it.  They  will  come  to  understand  something  of  the  reason  and 
the  result  of  it.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  Division  of  History  in 
the  Education  Department  and  the  teachers  in  the  schools  will 
realize  their  opportunity  to  serve  the  State  by  refusing  to  have 
their  faith  unsettled  by  professional  critics,  and  by  teaching  history 
to  the  children  by  realistic  pictures  and  by  inspiring  words. 


THE   NECESSARY  BASIS   OF   THE  TEACHER'S 

TENURE 


THE  NECESSARY  BASIS  OF  THE  TEACHER'S  TENURE  * 

For  many  years  much  has  been  said  in  our  educational  conven- 
tions about  the  desirability  of  a  permanent  tenure  of  position  for 
all  the  teachers  in  the  State.  It  has  seemed  to  me  a  troublesome 
subject,  but  I  am  glad  to  say  that  as  I  have  thought  of  it  more 
carefully  with  a  view  to  the  preparation  of  this  paper  some  of  the 
difficulties  have  disappeared.  My  conclusion  is  that  the  State  might 
very  safely,  and  probably  with  advantage  to  its  schools,  establish 
the  principle  that  whenever  a  teacher  is  once  employed  the  employ- 
ment shall  be  permanent,  thereby  meaning  that  the  teacher  shall  be 
entitled  to  the  position  until  he  or  she  resigns  or  is  removed  by  the 
trustees  for  a  cause  recognized  by  the  law.  But  this  principle  can 
not  safely  be  made  universal  in  this  State  unless  the  right  of  re- 
moval for  cause  is  to  be  strongly  upheld  and  freely  exercised,  and 
unless  the  causes  for  removal  are  held  to  include  all  things  which 
are  not  consistent  with  the  complete  and  proper  management  of  the 
school  and  all  things  which  do  not  make  for  the  vital  and  efficient 
instruction  of  pupils. 

No  one  must  imagine  that  this  is  a  mere  matter  of  protecting 
teachers.  Real  teachers  need  little  protection.  If  they  are  abused 
in  one  place,  they  ordinarily  get  a  better  place.  Doubtless  they  do 
need  to  have  their  rights  defined  by  law  and  recognized  by  prac- 
tice, so  that  the  small  number  of  contemptible  men  who  get  upon 
boards  of  education  may  have  notice  and  govern  themselves  ac- 
cordingly. But  this  is  a  matter  which  must  turn  not  so  much 
upon  the  interests  of  the  teachers  as  upon  the  good  of  the  schools. 
And  it  may  as  well  be  said  that  I  have  no  patience  what- 
ever with  teachers  who  agitate  for  their  imaginary  rights  re- 
gardless of  their  drawbacks  and  misdoings.  Our  task  is  to 
distinguish  the  just  rights  from  the  selfish  interests  of  the  teacher, 
and  to  reconcile  those  just  rights  of  the  teacher  with  the  best  good 
of  the  schools.  Perhaps  it  will  be  clearer  if  we  turn  it  around  and 
say  that  the  problem  is  to  determine  what  are  the  just  rights  of  the 
teacher  on  the  basis  of  the  most  good  to  the  schools.  No  one  can, 
with  an  honest  face,  whether  teacher  or  not,  ask  more  or  accept 
less  than  that. 


1  Address  before  the    New  York  State  Teachers     Association,     at     Al- 
bany, N.  Y.,  November  28,  191 1. 

127 


128 

A  protected  tenure  for  teachers  is  no  new  thing  with  us.  We 
have  43,017  teachers  in  the  public  schools  of  the  State.  Of  these, 
25J22  are  in  cities  where  the  tenure  is  permanent,  and  6652  are  in 
the  union  districts  where  the  employment  is  from  year  to  year  and 
is  practically  permanent  if  the  teacher  is  reasonably  satisfactory. 
So  there  are  10,643  teachers  outside  of  the  cities  and  union  dis- 
tricts whose  employment  is  only  from  year  to  year  and  in  the  com- 
mon thought  of  the  districts  is  wholly  subject  to  the  election  of  trus- 
tees. These  country  teachers  are  protected  by  law  much  more  than 
they  were.  They  have  definite  if  not  perpetual  terms  of  employment ; 
they  can  not  be  dismissed  within  the  term  without  cause ;  they  have 
the  contract  in  writing  and  they  get  their  pay  as  often  as  every 
month. 

True,  the  Education  Law  prohibits  a  board  in  a  union  district 
from  employing  a  teacher  for  a  longer  term  than  one  year,  and 
likewise  prohibits  a  sole  trustee  from  employing  a  teacher  for  a 
term  extending  beyond  his  own  term  of  office.  The  reason  for  this 
is  that  these  local  boards  and  trustees  too  often  employed  favorites 
and  entered  into  contracts  which  were  not  for  the  good  of  the 
schools.  It  must  be  obvious  enough  that  no  law  can  be  upheld 
which  does  not  have,  for  its  first  object,  the  good  of  the  schools; 
and  it  must  also  be  obvious  enough  that  the  law  has  to  deal  with 
many  school  trustees  who  fail  utterly  or  in  very  considerable  meas- 
ure intelligently  to  promote  the  interests  of  the  districts  they  are 
chosen  to  represent.  But  that  does  not  shake  the  faith  of  intelli- 
gent people  in  the  decentralized  system  of  school  administration. 
We  must  never  forget  that  our  schools  are  the  people's  schools  in  a 
great  sense  that  does  not  inhere  in  any  other  national  system  of 
education,  and  that  there  are  the  weightiest  reasons  why  the  peo- 
ple shall  manage  them  directly,  to  the  fullest  extent  shown 
by  experience  to  be  compatible  with  the  good  name  of  the  schools 
and  the  efficiency  of  the  teaching.  When  a  board  is  mean  and 
weak  enough  to  sacrifice  a  good  teacher  in  order  to  appoint 
another,  with  the  idea  that  it  will  do  a  favor  for  a  friend  or  be  of 
advantage  to  a  political  party,  as  sometimes  happens,  I  regret  it  for 
two  distinct  reasons.  First,  because  of  the  outrage  upon  the 
teacher:  one  who  can  do  such  a  thing  as  that  deserves  a  dose  of 
electricity  —  not  of  course  such  a  dose  as  the  law  prescribes  for  a 
man  convicted  of  murder  in  the  first  degree,  but  such  a  jolt  as  will 
make  him  wonder  why  he  was  ever  allowed  to  have  anything  to  do 
with  the  management  of  schools.    And  second,  because  it  limits  and 


129 

sets  back  the  faith  of  the  people,  and  particularly  of  experts,  in  so 
large  a  measure  of  popular  and  direct  management  of  the  schools. 
But  we  need  not  be  discouraged.  Where  there  is  one  trustee  who 
abuses  the  trust,  there  are  nine  who  execute  it  conscientiously,  ac- 
cording to  their  lights,  and  the  thing  to  do  is  to  turn  on  the  lights 
for  the  nine,  and  turn  on  enough  voltage  to  kill,  officially,  the  one. 

But  let  us  get  into  this  a  little  more  deeply.  The  school  organi- 
zation has  checks  and  balances:  it  exacts  much  of  teachers,  and 
when  it  does  that  it  enters  into  compensatory  obligations.  Teach- 
ers certificates  are  earned  by  study,  by  experience,  often  by  sacri- 
fice: they  ought  to  be  worth  something.  They  are  of  different 
grades:  that  should  and  does  mean  differing  values.  Those  of 
higher  grade  and  therefore  of  larger  value  stand  for  more  study, 
more  experience,  ripened  spirit,  proved  adaptation  to  particular  and 
exacting  duties,  and  complete  devotion  to  the  teacher's  calling. 
The  interests  of  the  school  system  require  not  only  that  no  school 
shall  be  taught  except  by  a  certificated  teacher,  that  is,  by  one  of 
some  proved  capacity,  but  they  also  require  advancing  grades  of 
certificates  representing  increasing  capacity  and  maturing  adapta- 
tion and  efficiency.  This  scheme  of  graded  certificates  calls  for 
more  and  more  study,  sacrifice  and  success.  The  school  system 
can  not  exact  all  this  without  entering  into  reciprocal  obligations. 
It  must  protect  the  certificates.  It  must  make  them  of  the  value  to 
the  teacher  that  they  pretend  to  be.  It  must  throw  the  strongest 
safeguards  about  the  certificates  that  represent  the  most  profes- 
sional culture,  and  the  longest  and  most  successful  service. 

This  system  of  examining  and  certificating  teachers  has  been  in 
operation  in  this  State  from  the  days  of  the  Dutch  West  India 
Company.  In  all  these  three  hundred  years  it  has  been  growing 
more  and  more  elaborate  and  complete.  It  has  made  rather  rapid 
progress  in  the  last  twenty-five  years.  It  has  in  that  time  been 
placed  upon  a  really  rational  and  impregnable  basis.  It  is  a  just 
system.  It  is  incapable  of  special  favors  or  resentments.  Its  re- 
wards have  to  go  to  those  who  work  for  and  deserve  them;  it  is 
compelled  to  turn  back  the  undeserving.  In  character,  purpose 
and  attainments,  the  teachers  give  exceptional  support  to,  and  have 
unusual  claims  upon,  the  protection  of  the  State.  The  State 
exacts  much  of  them  before  it  allows  them  to  teach  at  all,  and 
after  they  have  commenced  it  expects  them  to  progress  in  culture 
and  efficiency  or  leave  the  service.  No  business  calls  for  greater 
expertness,  aptness,  and  patience  than  that  of  instructing  children. 


13° 

No  one  in  the  public  service  is  more  liable  to  be  involved  in  mis- 
understandings with  the  people  and  more  subject  to  mistreatment 
by  public  officials,  than  are  the  teachers.  As  a  class  they  are  al- 
most incapable  of  defending  themselves.  They  realize  that  it  is 
against  good  policy  to  be  involved  in  controversy.  If  they  have 
troubles,  they  are  likely  to  be  with  people  who  are  coarser  than 
themselves,  and  they  would  have  small  chance  in  a  mere  war  of 
words  or  a  mere  measuring  of  strength  with  such.  Surely  the  State 
which  is  dependent  upon  and  claims  all  this  is  bound  to  protect  as 
well  as  it  can  those  who  render  it  a  really  high  and  true  service. 

The  State  has  developed  and  it  manages  the  system  by  which 
teachers  are  certificated.  All  the  states  in  the  Union  have  done  it, 
and  New  York  far  more  completely  than  any  other.  For  its  own 
moral  life  and  intellectual  progress  it  says  who  may  and  who  shall 
not  teach  in  the  State's  system  of  schools.  There  is  some  protec- 
tion in  that  if  rationally  done,  and  certainly  so  if  it  is  justly  pro- 
gressive, because  it  does  give  merit  its  opportunity  and  it  does 
save  the  competent  and  worthy  from  contact  and  competition  with 
the  incapable  and  the  unworthy.  But  that  only  makes  a  mere  be- 
ginning in  the  process  of  protection  that  is  vital  to  the  comfort  and 
deserts  of  the  teachers.  The  larger  part  of  the  task  is  not  under 
the  direct  management  of  the  State.  The  menace  to  the  teacher 
comes  not  through  the  licensing  system  but  through  the  employ- 
ment and  the  treatment  by  employers.  That  is  in  the  hands  of  49 
city  boards  of  education,  623  union  district  boards,  and  the  trus- 
tees in  9942  rural  school  districts.  These  boards  and  trustees  are 
changing  continually.  Thousands  of  new  men  and  women  are 
chosen  every  year.  Nearly  all  these  new  men  and  women  have 
absolutely  correct  intentions,  and  most  of  them  adjust  themselves 
to  the  service  of  the  schools  in  ways  that  do  them  credit.  But 
some  seek  the  responsibility  which  better  and  busier  people  would 
avoid,  in  order  to  gain  some  end  of  their  own ;  a  few  are  naturally 
brutal ;  some  have  favorites  to  aid ;  some  like  to  show  their  neigh- 
bors that  they  have  power  to  do  things  no  matter  who  suffers; 
some  try  to  make  patronage  of  the  schools  upon  the  false  idea  that 
it  will  aid  a  party;  and  some  would  subordinate  common  schools 
to  some  denominational  dogma  and  to  the  supposed  advantage  of 
a  church.  All  this  bears  upon  promotions  as  well  as  original  em- 
ployment. Besides  this,  and  whether  new  officials  come  in  or  not, 
one  teacher  in  contact  with  the  same  families  for  a  long  time  will 
gather  their  affections   or  their  animosities   in   proportion  to  the 


i3i 

length  of  service,  and  these  will  necessarily  be  reflected  in  the  offi- 
cial acts  of  boards  and  trustees.   In  indescribable  ways  these  things 
affect  teachers,  very  often  unjustly,  and  they  will  continue  to  do 
so  until  there  are  no  trustees  who  are  capable  of  injustice  or  until 
all  their  doings  are  regulated  by  laws  that  are  thoroughly  enforced. 
Now,  anything  that  the  State  does  to  regulate  the  official  conduct 
of  local  school  officials  is  a  limitation  upon  local  self-government. 
That  is  undesirable  where  unnecessary.     The  more  local  school 
government  there  is  that  is  wise  and  just  and  strong,  the  better 
will  be  the  local  schools  and  the  stronger  will  be  the  State  system 
of  schools.     It  is  not  more  a  question  of  right  than  of  expediency. 
The  Legislature  would  be  entirely  within  its  constitutional  power 
if  it  were  to  take  the  employment  and  immediate  control  of  teach- 
ers wholly  away  from  local  officers,  but  it  would  be  a  very  un- 
American  and  a  very  unwise  thing  to  do.    The  best  attainable  State 
system  of  schools  will  be  assured  when  we  discover  the  point  of 
equipoise  between  State  control  and  local  management.     And  the 
longer  the  arm  of  that  balance  that  is  on  the  side  of  local  independ- 
ence, the  better  it  is  for  the  schools,  the  people,  and  the  State.     It 
is  even  better  that  local  authority  shall  do  many  things  which  it 
does  not  do  as  well  as  the  State  might  do  them,  because  the  only 
way    that    people    can    learn    to   do   them   and   get   in   the   habit 
of  doing  them,  is  by  doing  them.    But  every  citizen,  every  stranger 
within  our  gates,  every  moral  and  commercial  interest  of  the  State, 
has  interests  which  are  involved  in  the  State's  system  of  educa- 
tion; and  therefore  the  State  at  large  can  not  allow  any  section  to 
be  without  sufficient  schools  to  open  the  door  of  opportunity  to  the 
childern  of  that  section,  and  it  can  not  allow  local  mismanagement  to 
reconcile  any  district  to  schools  that  grow  poorer  and  weaker  rather 
than  better  and  stronger.     If  you  will  show  me  just  how  little  or 
how  much  the  State  must  do  to  stimulate  popular  concern  about 
the  schools;  what  it  must  do  or  leave  undone  to  lead  towns  and 
districts  to  know  that  they  have  very  poor  schools  when  their  super- 
intendents and  teachers  lead  them  to  think  they  have  the  best; 
what  act  or  omission  to  act  on  the  part  of  the  State  will  impel  the 
people  of  a  city  or  district  to  courses  which  will  force  the  school 
to  give  their  children  better  training,  you  will  not  only  point  out  the 
exact  spot  to  which  the  State  should  go  in  exercising  control  over 
the  local  government  of  the  schools,  but  also  the  exact  spot  at 
which  it  should  stop. 

But  we  are  not  to  be  abashed  by  impracticables  who  talk  about 


132 

the  autocratic  exercise  of  the  State's  power  in  education.  It  is  the 
common  educational  opinion,  and  it  is  rapidly  coming  to  be  the 
popular  opinion  in  America,  that  very  few  of  the  States  go  as  far 
as  they  will  have  to  go  in  stimulating  local  initiative  and  in  regu- 
lating and  limiting  ignorance,  conceit,  or  viciousness  in  the  man- 
agement of  the  schools.  Healthy  public  opinion  is  everywhere  in 
favor  of  every  legal  authority  and  every  civic  force,  general  or 
iocal,  doing  everything  possible  to  energize  education.  And  in 
practice  the  thing  works  smoothly  enough.  Look  at  the  cities, 
towns  and  districts  of  the  State  of  New  York.  In  the  cities  and 
best  towns  there  are  so  many  people,  and  so  many  who  really 
know  much  about  good  schools,  there  is  so  much  money  invested 
in  the  business  of  the  schools,  and  there  are  so  many  teachers  whose 
rights  have  to  be  fixed  and  regarded,  that  the  whole  system  ordi- 
narily moves  along  smoothly  enough.  If  there  is  a  sane  and  effi- 
cient superintendent,  the  system  grows  better  and  better.  If 
there  is  a  poor  one,  a  way  comes  in  the  course  of  time  to  get  rid 
of  him.  If  a  conceited  or  a  corrupt  board  of  education  gets  in 
control,  it  is  regulated  and  after  a  while  removed.  The  State 
exercises  control  only  on  the  rare  occasions  when  something  very 
bad  has  developed.  Ordinarily  it  has  little  or  nothing  to  do  in  the 
communities  where  the  best  educational  work  is  being  done;  in- 
deed, it  gets  support  from,  and  it  is  glad  to  feel  the  control  of, 
such  cities  and  towns.  It  feels  the  support  and  control  of  such 
cities  and  towns  more  than  it  supports  or  controls  them.  Indeed, 
its  only  power  comes  from  them.  It  is  where  sentiment  is  low, 
rights  uncertain,  and  the  procedure  unsettled ;  where  there  is  little 
wholesome  local  initiative  and  no  vital  educational  aggressiveness, 
that  the  aid  and  power  of  the  State,  that  is,  the  aid  and  power  of 
the  stronger  districts,  must  go  if  the  general  excellence  of  the  edu- 
cational system  is  to  promote,  or  even  keep  up  with,  the  material 
growth  and  the  political  significance  of  the  State.  The  State  has  to 
legislate  for  general  conditions,  but  the  law  is  made  for  and  felt 
most  by  the  conditions  that  are  the  worst.  The  laws  are  inactive 
except  in  conditions  that  call  for  them.  They  must  be  active  when 
and  where  necessary.  Don't  be  superficial  about  this  important 
matter.  Think  about  it  and  you  will  be  impressed  with  the  fact 
that  the  men  and  women  with  whom  education  is  a  love,  and  moral 
culture  a  passion,  never  have  their  feelings  outraged  by  any  State 
invasion  of  local  prerogative,  and  never  discover  any  menace  to 
education   in  the  growing  educational  power  and  the  quickened 


133 

educational  activity  of  the  Empire  State.  It  is  only  when  some- 
thing mean  or  wrong  is  done  by  some  misrepresentative,  in  the  fair 
name  of  the  State,  that  such  men  and  women  are  heard  from,  as 
they  are  bound  to  be. 

It  may  have  occurred  to  you  that  I  have  been  wandering  from  my 
theme,  but  the  tenure  of  the  teacher  can  not  be  well  considered 
without  an  appeal  to  general  principles  that  must  of  necessity  be 
of  state-wide  application.  The  right  to  teach  when  employed  is 
always  regulated  and  conferred  by  the  State.  In  theory  and  pre- 
tense it  has  always  been  so,  though  until  recent  years  it  was  dele- 
gated to  local  officers  who  often  exercised  their  powers  very  ignor- 
antly  or  abused  them  most  outrageously.  But  while  the  power  to 
certify  teachers  has  always  been  reserved  to  the  State,  the  power 
to  employ  them  has  always  been  conceded  to  the  city  or  school  dis- 
trict. And  tenure  is  a  matter  of  employment.  Of  course  all  teach- 
ers are  employed  by  public  officers  and  all  the  doings  of  public  offi- 
cers are  under  the  control  or  within  the  reach  of  the  law.  How 
far  should  the  State  go  in  restricting  the  absolute  freedom  of 
boards  of  education  and  trustees  to  employ  such  certificated  teach- 
ers, for  such  length  of  time,  such  pay,  and  such  other  conditions 
as  they  please?  It  has  gone  some  length  already:  how  much  fur- 
ther should  it  go?  How  domineering  and  unjust  shall  the  law 
allow  an  employing  officer  to  be  to  a  certificated  teacher,  when  he 
has  developed  a  penchant  for  parading  his  brief  authority  or  has 
conceived  a  fancy  for  another  teacher? 

The  answer  is,  I  think,  that  we  must  believe  in  the  people;  that 
we  must  assume  that  boards  of  education  and  trustees  are  honest 
and  sincere,  as  in  nearly  every  case  they  are;  that  the  State  must 
lay  down  the  general  principles  within  which  they  shall  confine 
themselves,  and  then  afford  them  the  free  right  to  use  their  discre- 
tion, within  such  confines,  and  expect  that  they  will  perform  their 
duties  like  honest  men  and  women  and  according  to  the  rule  of 
reason.  But  while  we  believe,  and  assume,  and  expect  all  this,  we 
have  experience  enough  to  know  that  there  will  be  many  cases  in 
which  our  benevolent  assumptions  will  not  be  realized.  The  schools 
go  on  term  after  term  and  year  after  year,  but  the  employing  offi- 
cers change  continually.  The  vagaries  are  multitudinous  and  the 
conditions  are  kaleidoscopic.  The  State  seems  bound  to  protect  its 
certificates,  see  that  the  teacher  is  protected  against  vagaries  or 
something  worse,  and  that  the  schools  have  steadiness  and  con- 
tinuity of  procedure.     To  that  end  it  seems  perfectly  reasonable 


134 

to  me  that  a  certificated  teacher  when  once  employed  shall  be  given 
a  tenure  that  shall  continue  until  the  position  is  vacated  voluntarily 
or  the  teacher  dismissed  for  cause. 

But  if  the  tenure  of  all  teachers  is  to  be  permanent  except  for 
just  cause,  it  will  be  necessary  to  extend  the  accepted  or  the  legal 
causes  for  which  the  services  of  teachers  may  be  properly  discon- 
tinued. If  we  are  to  make  the  principle  general  that  a  teacher  once 
employed  shall  be  employed  as  long  as  he  wishes,  or  until  just 
cause  for  a  change  arises,  it  will  be  necessary  to  leave  the  determi- 
nation of  what  is  just  cause  to  the  discretion  of  boards  and  trustees, 
acting  perhaps  in  cooperation  with  superintendents,  until  it  ap- 
pears that  such  boards  or  trustees  have  been  moved  by  bias,  or 
pique,  or  had  some  interested  motive  which  was  sufficient  to  dis- 
qualify them  for  the  proper  execution  of  their  very  responsible 
trust. 

But  there  is  much  for  teachers  as  well  as  trustees  to  think  of. 
Any  public  employee  claiming  a  permanent  tenure  must  maintain 
an  exemplary  character,  offer  particular  preparation,  accept  the 
conditions  and  dicipline  incident  to  the  employment,  meet  obliga- 
tions in  honorable  ways,  and  render  a  service  that  steadily  grows 
in  value.  Very  likely  the  teachers  do  all  that  more  completely  than 
any  other  class  of  public  servants.  But  the  teaching  organization 
is  not  altogether  exempted  from  the  weaknesses  of  human  nature. 
Permanency  of  tenure  has  some  disadvantages  as  well  as  consider- 
able justice  in  it.  The  weaker  ones  take  advantage  of  it.  There 
is  no  one  here  familiar  with'  the  administration  of  schools  in  a 
considerable  city  under  permanent  tenure,  who  does  not  know 
that  if  nothing  but  the  efficiency  of  the  teaching  were  considered,  a 
considerable  number  of  teachers  would  have  to  be  removed  at 
once,  and  then  still  others  would  have  to  be  removed  next  year. 
A  few  will  break  down  morally;  some  will  become  so  slatternly 
as  to  make  themselves  intolerable;  others  will  become  soured  at 
the  necessary  discipline  of  the  service,  or  estranged  from  the  fami- 
lies they  must  serve;  still  others  will  stagnate  professionally,  or 
actually  recede  in  teaching  attainments. 

The  cause  of  half  of  this  will  be  with  the  leadership,  with  the 
board  or  with  the  superintendent.  The  board  may  be  unsub- 
stantial or  unjust,  the  superintendent  may  be  a  shallow  pretender 
or  a  conceited  martinet.  Teachers  know  better  than  others  do 
about  the  capacity  and  the  moral  integrity  of  an  administration. 
They  can  not  stand  everything.     There  is  not  a  large  percentage 


i35 

of  them  that  will  not  gladly  follow  a  capable  leadership,  or  respond 
to  sane,  frank,  sincere,  sympathetic  criticism.  A  general  and  im- 
perative condition  to  successful  permanent  tenure  is  that  the  ad- 
ministration and  the  supervision  of  the  system  shall  not  be  of  a 
kind  which  contributes  to  the  causes  which-  justify  dismissal. 

But  the  system  must  progress.  If  it  does  not  the  causes  must 
be  removed,  and  quite  as  much  when  they  rest  with  the  teacher  as 
when  they  rest  with  the  trustee.  Can  we  specify  the  causes  which 
shall  justly  interrupt  the  employment  of  the  teacher?  Unsound- 
ness of  moral  character  is  of  course  sufficient.  Rebellion  against 
discipline  can  have  no  other  result.  The  management  may  be 
unjust  and  may  justify  a  revolution,  and  if  so  there  ought  to  be 
revolt,  but  teachers  would  better  not  think  of  it  unless  there  is 
real  cause  for  it,  or  without  being  armed  with  the  facts  and 
equipped  with  the  strength  which  will  make  it  successful.  Find- 
ing a  new  place  is  sometimes  better  than  revolt.  Disagreements 
with  families  of  the  children  in  the  school  may  justify  forcing  a 
change  in  the  teacher:  even  though  the  change  may  not  be  justi- 
fied on  the  ground  of  moral  right,  it  may  be  better  for  the  school 
and  even  better  for  the  teacher.  Conduct  in  life  which,  without 
being  immoral,  impedes  efficiency  or  brings  discredit  upon  the 
schools,  may  be  a  sufficient  cause  for  removal  of  the  teacher.  In 
common  schools  the  teachers  must  regard  the  circumstances  and 
opinions  of  all  the  people.  Pedagogical  reasons,  lack  of  neatness 
and  of  control,  the  waning  of  the  teaching  power,  may  amply  justify 
the  termination  of  the  employment.  Teachers  must  keep  their 
own  agreements,  either  express  or  implied,  in  order  to  be  in 
position  to  exact  their  rights.  If  a  teacher  leaves  one  position, 
when  under  engagement  to  continue,  because  he  can  get  more 
money  in  another  place,  he  has  no  claims  to  the  protection  of  his 
tenure.  We  can  not  assume  that  a  teacher  must  be  guilty  of 
something  that  should  send  him  to  jail,  before  he  may  be  required 
to  cease  teaching  in  .a  particular  place  or  altogether.  He  must 
attract  good  citizens,  must  grow  in  the  teaching  power  and  the 
teaching  spirit,  or  they  will  be  justified  in  wanting  a  change.  All 
the  circumstances  can  not  be  anticipated  nor  all  the  causes  specified 
here  or  in  the  law.  The  good  of  the  schools,  the  esprit  de  corps 
of  the  system,  must  settle  the  matter.  If  a  teacher  is  in  the  way 
of  the  schools  growing  better,  he  or  she  should  go. 

It  must  be  settled  by  the  responsible  authorities  charged  with  the 
management  of  the  particular  school,  and,  if  necessary,  it  must  in 


136 

the  last  analysis  be  determined  by  an  authority  that  is  without  local 
bias  or  prejudice,  that  is  sympathetic  with  teachers,  that  is  in 
sympathy  with  parents  also,  that  is  intent  upon  the  progress  of 
schools,  and  that  knows  how  to  build  up  both  the  sure  foundations 
and  the  more  ornate  superstructure  of  a  school  system  with  edu- 
cational power  in  it.  It  would  doubtless  be  better  for  the  system 
and  no  more  than  just  to  the  teachers  if  all  employment  were  for 
an  indefinite  time,  provided  dismissal  might  be  made  very  freely  by 
honest  trustees  for  any  cause  recognized  by  the  law  or  which 
would  be  sustained  by  the  State  Department.  But  whatever  is  done 
must  be  done  in  the  open,  at  least  so  far  as  the  teachers  concerned 
wish  to  have  it.  It  is  not  necessary  that  everything  should  be 
paraded  before  the  public,  but  no  teacher  should  be  forced  out  of 
a  place  except  upon  notice,  and  for  a  real  cause  which  can  be 
stated  in  writing.  Of  course  the  power  of  removal  should  generally 
be  exercised  with  some  reference  to  the  time  of  year ;  for  im- 
morality it  should  be  summary;  for  any  cause  which  menaces  the 
discipline  and  routine  of  the  school  it  may  properly  be  speedy ;  for 
any  reason  which  is  substantial  but  not  immediately  urgent,  it 
should  be  delayed  until  the  close  of  the  school  year.  The  right 
of  dismissal  for  cause  should  apply  to  the  higher  officers  and 
principals  even  more  rigidly  than  to  class  teachers.  If  for  any 
cause  whatever  the  deliberate  sentiment  of  a  community  wants  a 
change  in  the  office  of  superintendent  of  schools  or  principal  of 
the  high  school,  that  sentiment  ought  to  be  respected.  Of  course 
it  must  act  decently  and  without  senseless  precipitancy.  But  no 
self-respecting  man  wTorthy  of  a  high  place  in  the  schools  can  wish 
to  remain  in  a  place  where  the  deliberate  judgment  of  a  respect- 
able board  and  the  settled  sentiment  of  the  community  are  against 
him.  Public  sentiment  is  ordinarily  favorable  enough  to  teachers. 
Often  it  is  too  favorable.  It  is  sometimes  so  considerate,  without 
full  knowledge,  that  demagogues  play  upon  it.  When  it  is  adverse 
it  must  be  accepted.  The  power  of  the  people  and  of  their  repre- 
sentatives over  the  teaching  body  in  their  schools,  acting  within 
the  limitations  of  the  law  and  according  to  the  moral  principles 
which  we  all  ought  to  understand,  must  be  absolute. 

Nothing  has  been  said  about  pensions  or  retiring  allowances  for 
worn-out  teachers.  It  is  a  subject  by  itself,  and  to  me  a  trouble- 
some one.  I  have  always  held  off  about  this  because  of  my  inherent 
opposition  to  a  State  pension  system.  But  something  will  have  to 
be  done,  not  only  in  justice  to  teachers  who  have  worn  themselves 


137 

out  for  small  pay  in  the  public  service,  but  for  the  sake  of  the 
schools  which  can  not  cast  these  worthy  teachers  out  even  though 
their  efficiency  is  over  and  they  need  a  little  period  of  rest  on  earth 
before  the  rest  everlasting.  We  have  been  doing  something  in 
this  direction  in  the  last  year.  Much  more  will  have  to  be  done  if 
there  is  to  be  early  or  very  substantial  result.  In  the  meantime, 
if  some  millionaire  wants  to  do  a  great  deal  for  education  in  New 
York,  why  does  he  not  create  a  fund  for  the  relief  of  exhausted 
teachers  of  long  service  in  the  public  schools,  and  therefore  for 
the  uplift  of  the  public  schools  themselves?  The  State  has  opened 
the  way:  why  will  not  some  men  and  women  with  means  walk  in 
it?  Is  nothing  but  a  college  or  a  university  worthy  the  thought  of 
a  man  or  women  with  money? 

Then  my  conclusions,  stated  in  a  paragraph,  are  that  the  em- 
ployment and  promotion  and  compensation  and  discontinuance  of 
all  teachers  should  continue  to  be  the  functions  of  officials  chosen 
by  the  people  in  the  cities  and  school  districts.  We  must  continue 
to  decentralize  administration  to  the  fullest  extent  consistent  with 
efficiency  and  progress.  But  the  educational  system  is  the  State' 
system,  and  the  State  must  regulate  it  by  law  so  far  as  experience 
shows  to  be  necessary  for  its  good,  taking  it  in  its  entirety.  When 
once  employed  the  service  of  all  the  teachers  might  well  continue 
until  interrupted  by  death,  resignation,  or  discontinuance  by 
authority  for  cause.  There  is  no  apparent  reason  why  one  teacher 
should  go  out  and  another  come  in  merely  because  boards  and 
trustees  change.  But  with  the  more  permanent  tenure  the  teachers 
will  have  to  show  more  preparation,  adaptation  to  particular 
position,  and  professional  progress.  The  causes  of  removal  and 
the  procedure  will  have  to  be  thoroughly  regulated  by  law.  Every- 
thing will  have  to  be  done  in  the  open.  The  trustee  who  removes 
a  teacher  through  malice  or  to  make  an  opening  for  a  favorite, 
should  be  punished  for  it.  The  right  of  appeal  from  local  action 
to  State  authority  as  to  the  justness  of  the  removal  will  have  to 
be  well  recognized.  There  the  quibbles  of  pettifoggers  will  have 
to  be  brushed  aside,  and  an  ultimate  decision  made  as  to  whether 
the  removal  was  free  from  bad  motive  and  unreasonable  official 
conduct,  and  whether,  without  injustice  to  any  legal  right  of  the 
teacher  and  with  an  eye  only  to  the  good  of  the  school,  it  should 
be  sustained.  The  progress  of  the  school  is  the  paramount  matter ; 
there  is  no  more  reason  why  the  State  should  permit  the  school  to 
be  arrested,  should  permit  the  whole  system  to  be  weakened,  in 


138 

the  interests  of  weak,  unprogressive,  or  worn-out  teachers,  than 
why  it  should  permit  it  to  be  menaced  by  the  meanness  or  the 
badness  of  boards  and  trustees.  Teachers  who  do  not  grow  in 
professional  culture  and  teaching  spirit  have  small  claims;  those 
who  do  advance  in  these  things  have  claims  that  are  irresistible 
and  that  are  widely  recognized.  It  is  to  the  interest  of  the  State 
to  guard  them.  All  that  is  necessary  is  to  write  down  the  legal 
principles  that  properly  apply  and  set  up  the  administrative  practice 
that  ought  to  prevail.  There  is  no  great  difficulty  about  it.  The 
interests  of  teachers  who  deserve  protection,  and  the  interests  of 
schools  that  deserve  to  advance  are  altogether  consistent;  and  the 
complete  reconciliation  of  these  interests  in  the  Education  Law 
is  likely  to  contribute  as  much  as  anything  else  can  to  uphold  the 
honor  and  promote  the  progress  of  the  State. 


WEAKNESSES  IN  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES 


WEAKNESSES  IN  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITIES  1 

This  generation  and  the  one  preceding  it  have  witnessed  almost 
the  whole  of  the  development  of  American  universities.  Of  course 
we  inherited  some  of  our  thinking  and  some  of  our  plans  from 
other  countries,  and  of  course  the  doings  before  the  Civil  War 
have  influenced  our  later  doings  in  some  measure,  but  in  designs, 
construction,  proportions,  cost,  ideals,  and  work  performed,  our 
highest  institutions  of  learning  have  been  created  since  the 
chivalrous  and  magnanimous  peace  that  was  declared  at  Appomat- 
tox. We  used  to  think  of  the  teachers  of  an  advanced  institution 
as  less  than  a  score,  but  now  we  think  of  them  in  hundreds;  of 
students  in  hundreds,  but  now  in  thousands ;  of  property  and  reve- 
nues and  endowment  in  thousands,  but  now  in  millions.  We  used 
to  talk  of  colleges,  but  now  of  universities;  of  college  courses,  but 
now  of  university  "  offerings."  The  courses  used  to  relate  arbi- 
trarily and  exclusively  to  literary  culture  and  to  training  for  the 
ministry,  for  medicine,  and  for  law ;  the  "  offerings  "  now  bear  very 
intensively  upon  all  that  but  upon  infinitely  more;  upon  political 
administration,  upon  all  the  commercial  and  industrial  employ- 
ments, and  upon  many  of  the  mere  vocations  of  the  people.  Only 
the  rich  or  the  unusually  earnest  used  to  go  to  college  and  the 
rest  got  on  somehow  and  the  business  of  the  country  was  managed 
very  well ;  but  now  young  men  and  women  must  go  to  the  universi- 
ties or  be  in  extreme  peril  of  losing  social  opportunity  and  of 
waiving  all  likelihood  of  efficiency  and  success  in  business.  One 
must  go  to  a  university  to  become  prosperous  and  respectable. 
And  we  have  even  begun  to  hear  the  first  whisperings  of  a  demand 
that  nothing  shall  be  allowed  in  the  entire  educational  system 
which  does  not  settle  it  for  boys  and  girls  that  they  shall  go  to  a 
university,  regardless  of  conditions  and  attributes,  and  whether 
they  will  or  no.  Children,  parents,  states,  industrial  enterprises, 
political  institutions,  all  the  processes  and  the  very  freedom  of  our 
entire  educational  system,  are  being  rushed  and  restrained  by  forces 
that  fair  judgment  would  hold  to  be  not  absolutely  logical,  not 
altogether  altruistic,  not  exclusively  charged  with  the  responsibility 
of  settling  all  the  policies  of  the  country. 


1  Address    given    before   the  Associated   Academic  Principals  at  Syracuse, 
December  28,  191 1. 

141 


142 

I  have,  of  course,  no  sympathy  with  the  ideas  of  Mr  R.  T.  Crane 
of  Chicago,  who  has  published  so  much  rather  virile  writing  in 
opposition  to  all  schools  above  the  elementary.  But  I  have  respect 
for  him.  He  is  clearly  sincere.  He  is  a  thoroughly  successful 
captain  of  industry;  his  house  distributed  millions  of  dollars  to  its 
thousands  of  employees  at  the  last  Christmas  season  as  their  share 
in  the  prosperity  of  the  business;  and  he  would  have  to  be  named 
among  the  first  twenty  men  who  have  done  the  most  for  the  indus- 
trial prosperity  of  the  middle  west.  He  says  that  educators  assail 
him  without  reading  his  books.  I  am  not  going  to  assail  him,  and 
I  have  read  his  books.  But  I  differ  with  him  radically  and  as  a 
matter  of  course.  He  hardly  believes  in  schools  at  all.  He  accepts 
the  elementary  schools,  but  nothing  beyond.  He  thinks  youth 
should  be  trained  wholly  in  offices,  factories  and  shops,  as  they 
were  when  he  was  a  boy.  He  knows  all  about  industries  and  banks, 
but  he  has  been  outside  of  the  intellectual  advance  of  the  last  two 
generations.  With  the  vocabulary  and  brusqueness  of  the  factory, 
he  calls  universities  frauds  and  says  they  rob  parents  and  children. 
Of  course  he  has  had  his  rejoinder.  He  says  one  university  presi- 
dent called  him  an  "  ass,"  another  an  "  idiot,"  and  a  third  a 
"  troglodyte."  He  does  not  seem  to  resent  this :  he  says  it  proves 
his  contention  that  the  higher  education  is  worthless,  and  supports 
his  opinion  of  the  kind  of  timber  the  universities  use  to  make 
presidents  of.  It  would  be  very  amusing  reading,  but  that  it  is  a 
bit  pathetic. 

His  vital  error  is  that  he  believes  in  nothing  educational  outside 
of  "business,"  nothing  that  unlocks  new  truth  and  is  uplifting 
aside  from  the  doubtful  way  which  "  business  "  has  of  doing  it. 
He  has  attained  success  by  drudgery  and  determination :  he  thinks 
his  success  is  the  only  kind  and  his  way  of  reaching  success  the 
only  way.  Both  the  strength  and  the  weakness  of  the  man  are 
shown  by  the  fact  that  he  does  not  seem  to  care  if  no  one  agrees 
with  him.  Public  opinion  is  of  weight ;  well-nigh  universal  public 
opinion  upon  a  policy  that  has  been  evolved  out  of  the  origin,  the 
history,  the  intellectual  and  moral  aspirations,  and  the  physical 
struggles  of  a  democracy  of  a  hundred  millions  of  human  beings, 
is  bound  to  make  one  man  care.  Without  his  realizing  it,  Mr 
Crane's  methods  of  inquiry  are  as  unfair  and  impossible  of  logical 
results  as  his  restricted  habits  of  mind.  He  sends  to  busy  men 
extended  questionnaires  which  can  not  be  answered  categorically, 
and  is  critical  if  not  abusive  because  they  are  not.     He  gives  his 


143 

time  and  spends  his  money  in  propagating  an  individual  vagary 
rather  than  in  pursuing  an  open-minded  investigation  marked. by 
decent  respect  for  the  opinions  of  mankind.  To  answer  his  con- 
tentions would  require  the  collection  of  much  data  and  probably  six 
months  of  the  time  of  a  man  who  is  hardly  likely  to  be  without 
more  pressing  if  not  more  profitable  employment  than  proving, 
what  the  whole  world  holds  to  be  obvious  and  established. 

There  are  some  things  that  he  says  which  might  well  be  answered, 
and  doubtless  there  are  some  that  might  well  be  heeded.  Of 
course  the  facts  of  the  case  afford,  and  the  literature  of  the  sub- 
ject contains,  ample  answers,  but  the  pertinent  facts  may  well  be 
arrayed  and  the  reasons  may  well  be  adduced  to  aid  those  who  are 
less  familiar  with  the  matter  than  we  are.  But  if  he  says  things 
which  ought  to  be  heeded,  then  they  ought  to  be  heeded  none  the 
less  because  he  says  them.  Great  movements  and  great  institutions 
need  criticism ;  surely  criticism  ought  not  to  be  left  to  their  enemies 
nor  disregarded  because  their  enemies  make  it.  Having  no  thought 
of  answering  Mr  Crane,  and  putting  aside  the  main  contentions  of 
his  book,  I  am  nevertheless  free  to  say  that  his  claims  impel  me  to 
speak  of  some  weaknesses  in  the  structure  and  policies  of  our 
American  universities  which  I  have  long  had  in  mind. 

Of  course  I  must  speak  of  them  as  a  whole  and  also  as  a  type. 
What  is  said  will  apply  to  some  more  than  to  others,  and  perhaps 
to  some  not  at  all.  Yet  we  have  developed  an  American  type  of 
university :  there  are  certain  well  defined  characteristics,  a  certain 
oneness,  about  our  higher  institutions  of  learning  which  distinguish 
them  very  clearly  from  similar  institutions  in  other  lands.  The 
older  ones  have  been  made  over  by,  and  the  newer  ones  have  been 
evolved  out  of,  our  universal  system  of  common  schools,  out  of 
our  fundamental  political  principle  that  every  child  of  the  Republic 
shall  have  his  even  chance,  an  open  road  to  the  most  liberal  learn- 
ing, upon  which  road  he  may  advance  just  as  far  as  he  will.  The 
common  passion  for  all  learning  and  all  schools  has  brought  public 
support  and  private  endowment  to  our  universities,  and  in  turn 
that  has  erected  in  those  universities  a  system  of  government,  a 
scheme  of  organization,  a  plan  of  procedure,  and  an  outlook  upon 
an  objective  point,  that  are  all  far  apart  from  those  in  the  uni- 
versities of  other  lands;  even  from  the  universities  of  other  peoples 
who  are  possessed  of  political  and  religious  freedom  and  not  open 
to  the  charge  of  being  behind  us  in  their  love  of  learning.  This 
process  began  very  early  in  our  history  and  it  has  become  more  and 


144 

more  accentuated  by  our  progress  and  growth.  Our  democracy 
and  our  money  have  given  rise  to  a  type  of  university  that  is 
peculiar  to  ourselves.  In  this  type,  and  often  in  consequence  of 
the  very  causes  which  have  created  its  greatness,  there  have  de- 
veloped some  weaknesses,  which  I  shall  not  refrain  from  mentioning 
because  they  may  have  been  offset  by  compensatory  advantages, 
because  they  are  more  of  a  menace  to  some  institutions  than  to 
others,  or  because  they  have  become  more  pronounced  in  some 
parts  of  the  country  than  in  other  parts.  One  who  is  obliged  to 
speak  of  these  things  in  general  terms  is  confined  to  the  weak- 
nesses that  have  appeared  so  commonly  in  the  type  of  universities 
that  has  developed  in  America  that  they  may  be  predicted  at  given 
stages  in  the  progress  of  institutions  yet  to  be  developed. 

The  lust  for  riches  and  bigness  and  social  influence  and  political 
power  is  a  weakness  in  American  universities.  It  is  very  American, 
but  it  is  not  scholarly.  It  is  not  meant  that  America  stands  for 
grossness,  but  it  can  not  be  denied  that  its  spirit  and  predominant 
attributes  make  for  commercial  prosperity,  for  business  success, 
for  the  acquisition  of  houses  and  barns  and  riches,  rather  than  for 
scholarship.  Of  course,  riches  may  be  very  useful  to  the  progress 
of  scholarship.  It  is  hard  to  see  how  any  can  asperse  the  motives 
of  rich  men  and  women  who  have  given  to  schools.  But  there  is 
a  deep  gulf  between  wealth  and  learning.  Riches  may  weight 
learning  down  rather  than  uplift  it.  Noble  men  of  means  see 
this  and  try  to  avoid  it,  but  it  is  not  wholly  avoidable.  Human 
organization  with  plenty  of  means  is  hardly  able  completely  to 
withstand  the  influences  which  are  inherent  in  the  conditions  that 
surround  commercial  prosperity  and  accumulating  wealth.  Educa- 
tional institutions,  as  well  as  men,  have  reason  enough  to  pray  to 
be  delivered  from  both  poverty  and  riches.  It  is  most  surely  so  in 
America  where  fortunes  are  so  many  and  so  great.  That  it  might 
be  so  in  any  other  country  of  opportunity  does  not  lessen  its  seri- 
ousness here.  It  is  not  so  true  of  the  masses  in  other  countries 
as  of  the  masses  here,  and  there  is  little  danger  of  the  universities 
of  other  countries  being  affected  by  it  as  they  are  here.  Real 
scholarship  is  seldom  rich,  or  at  least  it  cares  little  for  riches. 
If  rich,  it  puts  scholarship  above  riches,  and  uses  its  riches  to  pro- 
mote scholarship.  It  is  modest.  It  thrives  under  humble  roofs 
and  it  dwells  in  pretty  close  relations  with  nature  and  with  God. 
Its  ambition  is  the  acquisition  of  knowledge,  and  its  highest  am- 
bition is  to  liberate  another  atom  of  scientific  truth.     Great  uni- 


145 

versities  have  grown  in  all  lands  and  centuries  by  scholars  seeking 
the  light  and  gathering  about  great  teachers  who  could  point  the 
way  to  it.  And  if  in  any  country  the  universities  shall  become 
brazen  in  their  quest  for  money,  learning  will  be  grievously  wounded 
in  her  own  house. 

The  ambition  of  American  universities  is  to  secure  gifts  and 
appropriations,  to  erect  sumptuous  buildings;  and  to  multiply 
teachers  and  matriculants  has  become  so  common  and  pronounced 
as  to  be  a  menace.  The  president  is  often  chosen  because  he  can 
get  money.  The  potentiality  of  the  organization  goes  into  this  quest 
for  bigness,  this  consuming  American  desire  to  be  first  in  the  race 
or  at  the  top  of  the  heap.  Mere  bigness  is  not  necessarily  a  weak- 
ness ;  it  even  has  certain  advantages ;  but  the  success  of  presidents 
is  measured  by  the  material  growth  and  by  numbers,  and  the 
struggle  for  bigness  and  particularly  for  magnificence  benumbs 
and  belittles  the  power  to  struggle  for  knowledge  and  for  truth. 
The  passion  and  the  trend  set  up  standards  that  mislead  youth  and 
confuse  the  common  thinking  of  the  country.  That  is  a  decided 
weakness  in  our  American  universities  and  it  is,  in  a  considerable 
sense,  peculiar  to  them. 

That  is  not  all  that  is  peculiar  to  them.  They  gain  the  advan- 
tages and  share  some  of  the  disadvantages  of  our  democracy,  of 
our  universal  support  of,  and  universal  disposition  to  manage,  all 
education.  The  democratic  influence  in  our  universities  mani- 
fested itself  at  the  very  founding  of  so  aristocratic  an  institution 
as  Harvard  College.  The  uniform  usage  of  the  Old  World  has 
given  the  management  of  the  universities  into  the  hands  of  teachers. 
At  Oxford,  and  in  some  measure  at  Cambridge  and  Paris,  the  con- 
trol had  been  divided,  but  it  was  only  a  division  of  functions  be- 
tween teachers.  Harvard  set  up  the  lay  board  of  control,  repre- 
sentative of  donors  or  of  the  state,  and  all  American  universities 
have  followed  it,  voluntarily  but  of  practical  necessity.  It  is  not 
unlike  the  division  between  the  public  and  the  professional  con- 
trol that  pervades  our  entire  system  of  education.  It  has  exerted 
many  and  mighty  influences,  and  while  the  good  results  outweigh 
those  not  so  good,  it  must  be  said  that  some  are  distinctly 
weakening. 

It  was  supposed  that  this  arrangement  would  assure  the  per- 
manent democracy  of  the  institutions.  With  the  wealth  and  the 
social  tendencies  which  have  resulted  from  the  munificent  support 
of  states  and  the  monumental  gifts  from  wealthy  and  large-hearted 


146 

donors,  it  is  doing  more  to  make  them  autocratic  on  the  basis  of 
possessions  and  power,  than  any  scholastic  exclusiveness  could 
possibly  have  done. 

Without  saying  that  in  itself  it  is  necessarily  a  weakness,  the 
lay  board  of  control,  representative  of  donors  or  of  the  state,  estab- 
lished when  Harvard  was  founded,  and  followed  by  all  our  Ameri- 
can universities,  has  certainly  resulted  in  some  troubles  that  are 
manifest  enough.  It  has  often  weakened  the  support  of  the  most 
scholarly  teachers  and  sometimes  made  it  pretty  nearly  impossible 
to  get  rid  of  a  teacher  even  though  he  be  not  worth  the  salt  his 
physical  system  craves.  If  a  teacher  can  play  the  demagogue  or 
has  a  friend  in  a  meddlesome  trustee,  he  is  practically  beyond  the 
reach  of  scholarly  discipline.  Moreover,  arbitrary  annual  tuition 
fees  and  fixed  salaries  for  teachers,  while  not  exclusively  American, 
have  had  a  development  here  far  beyond  that  of  other  lands.  The 
common  usage  in  other  universities  has  been  to  exact  fees  on  the 
basis  of  courses,  and  to  pay  teachers  on  the  basis  of  the  number 
of  students  attracted  by  their  work.  The  usage  here  is  to  charge 
an  annual  fee  for  whatever  the  student  will  take  in  a  year,  and  to 
pay  teachers  an  annual  salary  for  whatever  they  do,  whether  for 
many  or  for  few.  Something  is  to  be  said  for  both  plans,  but  the 
system  of  the  Old  World,  whatever  else  may  be  said  of  it,  puts  a 
teacher  to  his  utmost  and  provides  an  automatic  way  for  eliminat- 
ing a  weak  or  an  obsolete  one,  and  the  system  of  the  New  World 
certainly  experiences  a  good  deal  of  demoralization  through  the  sal- 
aries and  tenure  of  teachers.  Between  the  board  of  trustees,  the 
president,  the  rival  claims  of  teachers,  the  feelings  of  students, 
the  state  of  the  treasury,  and  the  outside  influences  that  creep  in, 
it  is  small  wonder  that  salaries  are  not  always  regulated  on  the 
basis  of  scholastic  merit,  or  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  get  rid 
of  an  instructor  who  has  not  committed  a  legal  or  a  moral  crime. 
And  as  crime  is  practically  unknown  among  teachers,  the  best  often 
go  unrewarded  and  the  rest  reap  the  advantages  of  a  system  which 
has  no  automatic  and  no  easy  way  of  discrimination  upon  the 
basis  of  merit.  The  result  is  a  good  many  weak  factors  in  our 
university  faculties,  with  the  prospect  of  a  good  many  more  unless 
parents  and  students  begin  to  discriminate  sharply  against  insti- 
tutions which  do  not  cure  the  trouble.  But  all  universities  are 
popular  in  their  own  territory,  and  popular  discrimination  seems 
pretty  nearly  impossible  now. 

Our  democratic  university  government  affords  opportunities  for 


147 

scheming  and  for  successful  appeals  to  flabby  sentiment  by  mem- 
bers of  faculties,  which  are  impossible  in  the  Old  World.  For 
example,  wide  open  elective  courses  were  sending  us  to  an  un- 
thinkable situation.  The  difficulty  had  to  be  cured  by  reducing 
the  number  of  electives  and  by  requiring  students  to  take  certain 
courses.  This  has  to  be  arranged  by  faculties,  and  creates  the 
opportunity  for  requiring  students  to  take  the  courses  of  certain 
teachers.  That  is  an  advantage  to  those  teachers  and  makes  for 
log-rolling.  It  will  be  idle  to  say  that  log-rolling  is  impossible  in 
a  university.  Of  course  it  is  of  the  academic  variety  and  some- 
what disguised,  but  there  is  hardly  an  American  university  that 
is  more  free  from  phases  of  it  than  the  county  court  house  which 
is  a  few  miles  away.  Look  at  yesterday's  or  tomorrow's  papers 
to  find  the  man  of  academic  degrees  who  is  long  in  his  vocabulary 
and  short  in  sense  if  not  in  principle,  who  is  dishonoring  and  de- 
grading a  noble  institution  in  the  sacred  name  of  "  academic  free- 
dom." These  things  seem  to  foreshadow  the  time  when  the  com- 
pensation of  university  teachers  will  have  to  depend  in  some 
measure  at  least  upon  the  demands  for  their  work,  or  when  they 
can  be  "  resigned  "  without  academic  or  public  commotions  which 
threaten  administrations. 

In  accompaniment  of  all  this  is  that  passionate  fondness  of  uni- 
versity teachers,  as  between  themselves  and  even  before  the  public, 
for  that  irrelevant  discussion  which  seems  to  destroy  all  sense  of 
educational  perspective.  Doubtless  there  is  psychological  reason 
for  it:  very  likely  it  is  an  expression  of  the  inevitable  reaction 
from  the  labors  of  the  library,  the  lecture  room,  and  the  labora- 
tory. Whatever  the  cause,  there  is  no  lack  of  profusion  about  it. 
They  will  keep  it  going  by  the  hour  with  apparently  more  pleasure 
than  they  can  find  in  any  other  pastime  unless  they  are  menaced 
by  the  apparition  of  coming  to  an  agreement.  They  remind  me 
of  Mrs  Kelly,  a  witty  Irish  dame,  who  was  certainly  advised  of 
some  of  the  social  curves  when  she  said  to  her  neighbor  "  How  are 
ye,  Mrs  Mahar?  Not  because  I  care  a  hoot  how  ye  are,  but  just 
to  start  the  conversation." 

In  the  freedom  of  the  country,  in  the  multiplicity  of  opinions 
and  of  things  to  be  done,  university  men  with  mere  training  in 
theory  and  little  or  no  practical  experience  have  little  hesitation  in 
representing  the  universities.  The  university  men  best  qualified 
to  speak  are  least  willing  to  do  so,  and  those  least  qualified  are 
quite  willing  to  attract  the  public  attention  which  does  not  dis- 


148 

criminate.  A  young  instructor  in  economics  feels  himself  per- 
fectly qualified  to  advise  the  national  association  of  bankers  or  of 
manufacturers.  It  is  done  not  in  a  personal  but  in  a  representative 
capacity,  and  it  accustoms  the  people  to  a  great  deal  from  the  uni- 
versities that  does  not  inspire  confidence  or  enlarge  the  respect 
that  is  worth  having. 

Again,  universities,  through  some  of  their  colleges  or  depart- 
ments, often  multiply  work  unreasonably,  with  the  result  that  they 
have  more  to  do,  have  more  students,  and  have  claims  for  more 
money.  Subjects  that  are  not  at  all  involved  or  obscure  are  given 
serious  aspects  and  extended  into  many  offerings  with  appalling 
titles,  enveloped  in  a  heavy  atmosphere,  and  presented  with  a  sub- 
lime seriousness  that  seems  to  invest  them  with  profound  mystery, 
learning  and  erudition.  It  is  seemingly  a  natural  outgrowth  of  our 
educational  situation  and  it  seems  impossible  to  prevent  it.  Pos- 
sibly it  would  not  be  well  to  prevent  it.  There  may  in  time  be 
compensatory  advantages  about  it,  but  if  our  universities  are  going 
to  value  a  uniformly  substantial  character,  expressed  by  their 
graduates  and  manifest  to  the  public,  there  will  surely  be  a  reaction 
against  it. 

There  is  another  side  of  the  matter.  Our  universities  have  a 
trouble  that  is  common  in  all  American  schools.  They  have  at 
least  to  respond  to  the  demands  upon  them.  Some  encourage  de- 
mands that  are  neither  educationally  sound  nor  practically  wise, 
because  the  result  will  add  to  their  bigness.  In  any  event,  those 
demands  are  for  more  than  they  can  do  thoroughly  well.  The 
American  people  have  less  inertia  and  contentment  than  the  peoples 
of  Europe.  Over  there  people  stay  where  they  were  born  or 
move  to  America.  Here  every  one  is  always  going  somewhere  in 
quest  of  riches,  position  and  titles.  It  has  long  been  very  natural 
to  go  to  the  schools,  and  it  is  particularly  fashionable  now  to  go  to 
the  universities.  Each  wants  something  when  he  gets  there  that 
few  others  want.  Each  expects  the  universities  to  respond  to  all 
his  wants.  All  this  enlarges  the  buildings  and  equipment  astonish- 
ingly, and  multiplies  the  teachers  and  the  classes  of  teachers  inordi- 
nately. And  the  teaching  in  the  universities  is  not  much  measured 
except  by  examinations  which  the  teachers  themselves  set,  hold, 
and  rate.  If  we  were  to  classify  the  teaching  in  America  on  the 
basis  of  pedagogical  result,  we  would  probably  hold  that  the  best 
teaching,  the  most  severely  judged  teaching,  the  teaching  which 
must  be  resultful,  is  by  the  women  in  the  primary  schools.     That 


149 

in  the  high  schools  is  less  severely  judged,  less  responsible,  more 
pretentious,  and  less  exact.  The  teaching  in  the  universities  is 
hardly  supervised  at  all;  it  exploits  involved  subjects,  it  is  a  law 
and  a  judge  unto  itself,  the  law  of  it  is  very  confused,  the  judge  is 
in  little  danger  of  a  recall,  and  withal  he  is  very  confident  in  his 
judgments  of  his  work.  With  the  growth  in  the  number  of 
teachers,  with  the  youth  and  inexperience  that  have  to  be  accepted, 
with  the  demoralization  of  riches,  with  the  strife  for  more  pay  and 
higher  position,  with  all  the  freedom  and  independence,  with  the 
opportunities  for  manipulation,  and  with  the  weight  of  democratic 
or  social  influence  as  against  purely  scholastic  merit,  it  is  not  sur- 
prising if  faculties  have  been  weakened  and  the  standards  ma- 
terially affected. 

If  this  is  at  all  true  of  the  faculties,  it  must  be  expected  to  affect 
the  student  bodies  very  materially — and  it  does.  Oh,  there  are 
serious  and  scholarly  teachers  by  the  thousands,  and  there  are 
earnest  students  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands,  but  it  can  hardly 
be  denied  that  because  of  their  newness,  their  bigness,  their  inde- 
pendence through  wealth,  and  their  democracy,  our  American  uni- 
versities, speaking  generally,  are  lacking  in  the  exactness  of  the 
best  scholarship  and  in  the  open-mindedness  and  intensiveness  with 
which  sound  scholarship  pursues  the  truth.  Examples  of  this  lack 
of  exactness  and  seriousness  are  common  enough,  indeed  so  com- 
mon that  we  hardly  think  of  them.  Candidates  for  admission  are 
not  turned  away  because  unprepared :  they  are  "  conditioned  "  or 
made  "  specials,"  or  sent  to  some  nearby  "  academic  hospital " 
where  they  will  be  doctored  up  and  saved  to  the  institution.  What- 
ever else  happens,  no  student  who  will  add  one  unit,  not  to  the 
stature  but  to  the  girth  of  a  university,  must  be  lost.  The  term 
"  research  "  is  used  in  our  universities  with  a  flippancy  and  a  pre- 
sumption that  are  often  absurd.  The  elective  system  will  probably 
justify  itself  if  its  worst  evils  can  be  cured,  but  it  can  hardly.be 
said  that  it  has  not  contributed  to  this  lack  of  exactness  and  of 
intensiveness  that  we  are  thinking  about.  If  it  has  enabled  stu- 
dents to  get  what  they  want  without  taking  what  they  do  not  want, 
it  has  also  offered  electives  to  students  who,  though  honest  enough, 
are  unable  to  elect  intelligently,  and  it  provides  "  snaps  "  for  those 
who  can  not  get  through  without  them.  To  say  the  very  least,  it 
creates  unbalanced  and  unscholarly  foundations  for  academic  de- 
grees. It  has  therefore  demoralized  standards  and  made  university 
honors  bearing  common  titles  of  wholly  different  values ;  it  is  to  be 


i5o 

feared  that  it  has  demoralized  the  public  opinion  of  the  country  and 
created  the  common  thought  that  no  one  with  either  wits  or  money 
need  have  much  difficulty  about  getting  a  degree. 

An  American  university  is  likely  to  become  a  little  cosmopolitan 
world  by  itself,  and  sometimes  not  a  little  one.  There  is  some- 
thing about  it  to  attract  all  classes.  With  fine  buildings  and 
grounds  and  equipment ;  with  lectures  and  concerts  and  plays ;  with 
fraternities  and  sororities  and  clubs;  with  games  and  crowds  and 
colors  and  cheers;  with  the  assurance  that  any  one  may  come  in 
and  get  "  learning  "  by  mixing  in  the  throng ;  with  all  the  lies  the 
old  grads  tell  about  the  things  they  never  did ;  and,  moreover,  with 
the  threat  of  opportunity  forever  lost  and  ambition  eternally  de- 
feated if  one  travels  some  other  road,  is  it  any  wonder  that  the 
universities  attract  all  kinds  of  students  and  not  a  few  who  are 
"  students"  in  nothing  but  name? 

There  are  some  universities  where  the  teachers  are  very  exacting 
upon  students,  and  in  some  universities  some  students  are  very 
exacting  upon  teachers.  The  demands  of  students  constitute  the 
life  blood  of  universities.  That  university  is  fortunate  where  either 
is  the  case.  But  there  are  enough  universities  where  neither  is  the 
case.  The  number  of  students  going  to  our  universities  who  might 
better  never  go  at  all,  the  mixed  elements  in  the  student  bodies,  the 
quantity  of  unprepared  materials  without  serious  purpose,  neces- 
sarily weakens  the  structure  of  the  organization  and  demoralizes 
its  work.  It  is  well  to  go  to  Europe  to  see  what  they  are  doing 
there,  though  no  student  need  go  to  Europe  to  find  deeper  learning 
or  better  teaching  than  in  America.  But  so  long  as  the  teachers 
are  weighted  by  stupid  and  indifferent  students,  and  so  long  as  the 
internal  organization  and  the  environing  influences  fail  to  put  a 
premium  upon  the  best  scholarship  and  the  best  teaching  and  re- 
quire courage  for  the  ruthless  judgment  of  students'  work,  there 
will  be  a  structural  weakness  in  American  universities. 

Now  let  us  change  the  point  of  view  and  think  of  the  attitudes 
of  our  universities  toward  the  common  life  of  the  country.  And 
first  toward  the  co:rmon  schools,  that  overwhelming  factor  in  the 
common  life.  Realizing  how  undesirable  it  is  to  admit  so  many 
conditioned  and  special  students,  they  would  make  all  other  schools 
preparatory  to  them  and  thus  assume  to  dominate  the  middle  and 
lower  school  systems  about  which  they  are  otherwise  in  none  too 
close  relations.  They  tell  the  high  schools  just  what  they  must  do 
and  leave  undone  to  prepare  for  college,  and  when  the  lower  schools 


i5i 

try  it,  they  say  with  an  arrogance  that  paralyzes  credulity  that 
their  freshmen  have  been  so  badly  taught  that  the  college  must  take 
several  months  to  clear  out  their  heads  before  they  can  really  com- 
mence the  study  of  the  subject  at  all.  Gracious  Heavens,  if  the 
high  schools  can  not  be  saved  from  this,  let  them  be  saved  from 
the  burden  of  trying  to  prepare  for  college  altogether.  Any  way, 
why  do  not  the  universities  either  abolish  requirements  for  admis- 
sion or  enforce  them?  Of  course  the  high  schools  have  the  same 
ambition  for  "  bigness  "  that  the  universities  have,  but  why  not 
have  it  settled  what  classes  of  work  the  high  schools  can  do 
thoroughly  well  and  discontinue  the  expensive  farce  of  their  trying 
to  do  more?  Or  why  do  not  the  universities  predicate  admission 
requirements  upon  the  purpose  and  the  power  to  do  their  work 
rather  than  upon  subjects  and  counts?  The  western  state  uni- 
versities have  a  better  plan  than  our  eastern  endowed  universities 
about  this.  At  least  it  does  away  with  the  discussion  that  occupies 
most  of  the  time  in  the  academic  conventions  of  the  east.  They 
inspect  schools  and  admit  on  diplomas;  if  the  students  can  not  do 
their  work  the  semester  examinations  exclude  them ;  they  have  had 
their  chance  and  can  not  complain.  The  western  students  say  that 
it  is  easy  to  get  in  but  hard  to  stay  in  a  western  university,  and 
that  it  is  a  little  harder  to  get  in  an  eastern  university  but  that 
it  is  no  task  to  stay  in,  and  that  one  who  pays  the  tuition  long 
enough  will  surely  get  a  degree.  Why  not  have  a  better  plan  about 
this  matter  here? 

But  the  universities  not  only  criticise  the  lower  schools  about 
the  treatment  of  pupils  who  are  to  become  college  students;  they 
are  now  actually  beginning  to  criticise  them  on  the  score  of  their 
treatment  of  pupils  who  are  not  going  to  college,  and  censure  them 
for  making  it  possible  that  any  shall  not  go  to  college.  Indeed, 
some  of  them  separate  the  world  into  two  classes :  the  learned,  who 
have  read  Caesar,  Cicero,  Virgil,  and  Homer,  and  become  enamored 
of  Helen  and  Cleopatra;  and  the  lost,  who  have  taken  all  this  only 
about  as  seriously  as  they  do  the  rest  of  the  literature  and  history 
of  the  world,  and  have  been  infected  with  the  heresy  that  the 
progress  of  science,  the  accumulations  of  experience,  and  the  ad- 
vance in  philosophy  and  literature,  have  proved  as  much  right  as 
have  Latin  grammar,  oratory,  and  history  to  be  inscribed  on  the 
tables  of  knowledge  and  of  law. 

A  year  ago  several  of  the  college  or  university  presidents  in  this 
State  went  so  far  as  to  "  say  things "  publicly  against  vocational 


152 

as  compared  with  classical  education.  One  would  hardly  expect 
them  to  do  that  at  any  time,  but  above  all  at  the  Christmas  time. 
It  was  clearly  caused  by  the  force  of  our  recent  movement  for 
training  workmen.  And  a  few  months  ago  my  friend,  Dean  West 
of  Princeton,  published  a  paper  entitled  "  Vocational  Training  — 
A  Menace  to  the  Universities."  Hard  experience  may  lead  one  to 
suspect  that  something  of  all  this  ought  to  be  overlooked  because 
of  the  necessities  of  speech-making.  It  makes  much  difference 
whether  one  has  to  say  something  or  really  has  something  to  say. 
It  may  be  that,  like  Mrs  Kelly,  these  university  men  feel  the  neces- 
sity of  saying  things  merely  "  to  keep  up  the  conversation."  If 
they  really  mean  it,  then  one  must  ask,  Do  they  think  the  country 
exists  for  the  universities  or  the  universities  for  the  country?  Is 
there  any  real  danger  of  too  few  educated  unproductives  or  of  too 
few  candidates  for  law  and  medicine,  and  of  too  many  trained  in 
skill  of  hand  and  in  the  application  of  science  to  industries  ? .  Is 
there  any  sense  in  resenting  and  resisting  the  making  of  men  and 
women  happier  and  better  through  improving  the  work  of  their 
hands  when  the  country  needs  their  better  work,  and  much  more 
of  it,  very  imperatively?  Is  it  wise  for  a  university  in  an  environ- 
ment that  is  almost  exclusively  industrial  to  preach  a  philosophy 
that  is  worn  out  anyway  and  at  the  best  can  only  unsettle  a  faith 
that  is  both  wise  and  good,  and  make  many  misfits  in  the  adjust- 
ments of  people  to  work?  No  one  would  keep  any  student  from 
studying  history  and  literature  and  philosophy  and  professional 
technic  as  exclusively  as  he  pleases.  No  one  entertains  any  doubts 
of  their  very  vital  and  very  large  importance  in  the  world,  or 
denies  their  claim  to  the  fullest  measure  of  support.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  university  that  has  conceived  the  idea  that  cultural  and 
professional  learning  are  all  that  are  entitled  to  a  full  measure  of 
support ;  that  its  mission  is  to  settle  the  destinies  of  boys  and  girls 
instead  of  aiding  them  to  do  it  intelligently  and  freely  for  them- 
selves; or  that  assumes  that  all  learning,  the  fullest  happiness,  or 
the  safest  citizenship  and  the  strength  of  the  Republic,  are  all 
within  the  limitations  of  classical  and  professional  culture,  is  cer- 
tain to  be  menaced  by  the  advancing  waves  of  common  intelligence 
even  to  the  point  where  the  honored  lights  of  a  hundred  or  a 
thousand  years  must  be  submerged.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the 
weaknesses  which  are  inevitable  in  new  universities  in  such  a  new 
world,  will  not  be  enlarged  by  any  serious  support  of  such  a 
fallacy  as  this. 


i53 

Time  enough  must  be  reserved  for  a  word  about  university 
morals.  Probably  there  is  no  ground  for  criticising  the  good  pur- 
pose of  university  management  in  America,  but  it  is  apparent  I 
think  that  very  generally  the  governments  of  the  universities  are 
showing  a  woeful  lack  either  of  strength  or  of  courage  in  dealing 
with  the  larger  bodies  of  students  and  the  increasing  swiftness  of 
student  community  life.  I  do  not  believe  that  more  go  to  the  bad 
in  the  universities  than  would  if  they  did  not  attend  the  universi- 
ties. It  may  well  be  doubted  whether  there  is  more  evil  in  college 
life  than  in  social  life  in  general.  Even  so,  this  is  not  enough : 
students  have  no  business  in  universities  at  all  if  they  are  not 
intent  upon  going  to  the  good  rather  than  half  way  willing  to  go 
to  the  bad.  University  life  is  an  association  of  people  who  pro- 
claim scholarly  aspiration  and  moral  purpose;  it  ought  to  endure 
on  no  other  basis ;  it  is  bound  to  be  an  example  of  decent  living,  and 
not  be  content  to  debase  public  opinion  and  degrade  the  educational 
system  of  which  it  counts  itself  the  head.  The  society  is  a  selected 
one ;  its  members  are  not  chosen  on  the  basis  of  either  poverty  or 
riches,  or  on  that  of  charity  or  social  independence,  but  on  the 
ground  of  something  accomplished,  of  pretended  intellectual  am- 
bition and  presumed  moral  purpose.  In  these  regards  it  must  be 
held  to  be  above  the  average  in  the  state,  and  in  government  and 
conduct  it  must  of  necessity  be  either  a  good  example  to  the  state 
or  a  deplorably  bad  one. 

There  are  not  many  of  us  who  would  go  back  to  the  severe 
biblical  interpretations  or  the  intolerable  religious  philosophy  of 
our  sainted  fathers  and  mothers.  Neither  would  wre  return  to  the 
religious  theory  and  practice,  to  the  Christian  exclusiveness  and 
the  innumerable  rules  of  conduct,  of  our  early  American  colleges. 
But  we  are  not  going  to  forget  the  history  of  American  higher 
education  and  of  America  itself.  We  know  what  our  present 
estate  has  grown  out  of  and  we  know  something  of  the  vital  basis 
upon  which  it  may  continue  to  enlarge.  A  college  or  university 
without  religious  foundations  may  exist  in  other  countries,  but  one 
must  have  them  before  it  can  be  an  American  college  or  university 
at  all.  And  it  must  square  its  life,  not  some  of  its  life,  not  its 
average  life,  but  all  of  its  life,  with  the  fundamentals  of  its  history 
and  its  being,  or  it  must  accept  responsibility  for  inconsistencies 
which  must  necessarily  hinder  all  the  purposes  which  it  was  set 
up  to  promote  and  be  more  than  likely  in  the  end  to  destroy  its 
own  life. 


154 

We  accept  all  the  joys  and  pleasures,  even  all  the  harmless 
pranks,  raillery  and  foolishness,  of  university  life;  we  believe  in 
manly  and  womanly  sport  and  are  glad  to  make  concessions  to  it; 
we  will  not  draw  the  line  too  hard  against  the  more  luxurious 
surroundings  of  modern  life  and  the  human  frailties  that  give 
way  to  them.  Some  of  us  would  dislike  to  join  Chancellor  Day's 
society,  which  would  send  us  out  to  the  woodshed  if  we  wanted  to 
smoke.  But  when  it  comes  to  the  brutal  vices,  to  drunkenness, 
licentiousness,  gambling,  to  violating  the  rights  of  person  and  prop- 
erty, to  maltreating  other  students  and  taking  possession  of  theaters 
and  cars,  to  defying  the  university  government  and  also  the  public 
power  of  police,  there  can  be  no  latitude  for  discretion  about  what 
is  to  be  done,  and  no  time  for  procrastination  or  hesitation.  And 
it  is  simple  enough.  Not  many  rules  are  necessary.  Demand  that 
the  police  proceed  against  students  just  as  they  do  against  violaters 
of  the  peace  and  breakers  of  the  law  of  any  other  class.  Assume 
that  all  in  a  university  are  fit  associates  in  a  life  which  regulates 
its  conduct  by  moral  principle  and  is  bent  upon  a  serious  purpose: 
when  it  is  discovered  that  one  is  not,  send  him  out  of  the  inclosure 
at  once  and  for  good.  There  will  be  weeping  and  wailing,  pining 
and  pleading,  but  let  it  go.  There  will  not  have  to  be  so  much 
further  on  because  there  will  not  be  the  further  excesses  which 
grow  out  of  excesses  unpunished;  the  good  ship  will  have  shown 
that  she  can  stand  heavy  weather;  and  the  captain  will  be  honored 
for  having  kept  her  true  upon  her  great  course. 

Who  can  cure  these  weaknesses?  The  common  sentiment  of  the 
country  can  hardly  be  expected  to  do  it.  That  sentiment  can  not 
be  united,  it  does  not  perceive  the  difficulties,  and  it  hardly  has  the 
means.  The  constituencies  of  the  different  institutions  ought  to 
force  it  but  such  constituencies  are  accustomed  to  follow  leaders. 
It  is  rather  too  much  to  expect  of  the  lay  boards  of  trustees.  They 
expect  the  educational  administrations  to  deal  with  such  matters. 
It  is  up  to  the  presidents.  They  have  the  power  to  do  it  if  it  can 
be  done  at  all.  Under  our  university  system,  the  responsibility  and 
the  right  to  lead  are  theirs.  It  is  a  matter  of  their  standards, 
strength,  and  courage. 

If  these  structural  weaknesses  in  American  universities  are  cured 
it  will  be  upon  the  initiative  and  under  the  leadership  of  their 
presidents.  The  office  of  president,  as  we  know  its  attributes,  is 
peculiar  to  American  universities;  like  the  lay  board  of  trustees, 
it  is  unknown  in  other  universities.     It  has  grown  out  of  the  very 


i55 

necessities  of  our  half  popular  and  half  professional,  half  lay  and 
half  scholastic  scheme  of  university  government.  It  is  not  only 
the  executive  force,  it  is  also  the  conserving,  organizing,  directive 
force  in  administration.  It  is  yet  more  than  that:  it  is  the  power 
that  gathers  and  harmonizes  the  forces  which  enter  into  the  evolu- 
tion of  a  great  university,  and  it  is  the  power  which  can  enable 
education  to  resist  the  weaknesses  and  the  vagaries  inevitably  asso- 
ciated with  compounding  millions  of  widely  different  people  into 
a  new  world  power.  It  is  apparently  the  only  power  in  the  forces 
that  are  making  our  universities  and  in  the  plan  of  our  university 
government  that  can  do  it.  This  is  depreciating  none  of  the  other 
forces.  Money,  altruistic  spirit,  reverence  for  God,  and  love  of 
learning,  are  great  forces.  A  college  or  a  department  may  be  made 
great  by  a  man  who  has  the  head,  the  training,  and  the  heart  of  a 
scholar,  and  who  is  given  opportunity  and  provided  with  means. 
But  no  university  in  America  has  ever  developed  strong  colleges 
and  departments,  and  brought  each  to  support  all  the  rest,  and 
effected  a  comprehensive  whole  which  has  quickened  the  intellectual 
and  moral  life  of  the  nation,  without  having  had  at  least  one  great 
president  and  without  having  protected  him  from  the  vagaries  and 
jealousies  of  individuals  for  a  considerable  time.  And  if  this  office 
is  the  power  that  has  made  many  of  our  universities  big  and  some 
of  them  great,  we  must  look  to  it,  and  give  it  the  men  and  the  sup- 
port and  the  trend  which  will  enable  it  to  make  more  of  them  great, 
and  such  as  are  great  greater  still. 

Our  theme  has  not  been  altogether  agreeable.  It  is  to  be  regret- 
ted that  it  has  not  been  dealt  with  by  one  who  could  make  its  im- 
portance seem  more  urgent.  The  weaknesses  of  the  universities 
are  the  weaknesses  of  the  nation.  We  never  needed  great  univer- 
sities more  than  we  do  now.  It  may  be  that  we  are  entering  as 
critical  a  period  as  we  have  ever  had  in  the  history  of  the  Republic. 
All  government  is  on  trial.  Democratic  government  can  not  escape 
further  tests  of  its  strength  and  its  beneficence.  The  bigness  of 
the  nation  and  the  heterogeneous  character  of  the  people ;  the  great 
business  of  developing  and  conserving  our  vast  physical  and 
political  estates;  the  care  of  all  the  wicked,  the  degenerate, 
and  the  unfortunate;  the  indifference,  or  at  least  the  helpless- 
ness, about  choosing  competent  representative  assemblies  and 
the  recklessness  with  which  legislation  is  matured;  and  the 
haste  and  gaiety  with  which  millions,  if  not  scores  of  millions, 
seem  ready  to  cast  away  inbred  religious  beliefs  of  the  nation  and 


i56 

the  fundamental  political  principles  of  the  government;  all  point 
to  a  period  hardly  less  critical  than  that  period  which  went  just 
before  the  making  of  the  Constitution  and  that  other  which  went 
just  before  the  Civil  War.  Of  course  we  are  all  optimists,  but 
we  are  barred  from  being  very  stupid  optimists ;  we  are  not  ignor- 
ant of  the  low  points  as  well  as  the  high  points  of  human  nature, 
and  we  have  often  seen  the  slants  and  curves  and  vacant  spaces  on 
the  great  diagram  of  human  history. 

How  the  races  troop  over  the  stage  in  endless  procession ! 
Persian  and  Arab  and  Greek  and  Hun  and  Roman  and  Saxon 
Master  the  world  in  turn  and  then  disappear  in  the  darkness. 

We  think  we  know  that  this  nation  will  endure;  the  nations 
that  have  perished  have  neither  had  our  freedom  nor  been  guided 
by  our  lights.  But  we  know  too,  or  ought  to  know,  that  the  nation 
will  endure  only  by  the  continuing  triumph  of  the  forces  of  in- 
telligence and  righteousness  over  the  forces  of  ignorance  and  vice; 
only  by  men  and  parties  letting  go  of  issues  that  are  obsolete  and 
burying  prejudices  that  are  outworn,  and  by  making  moral,  scien- 
tific, patriotic  alinement  upon  the  vital  questions  of  a  new  situation 
and  a  new  day.  It  will  have  to  come  through  the  consolidation  of 
the  best  thinking  and  the  great-heartedness  of  the  schools  and  the 
churches.  In  very  large  measure  it  will  have  to  come  through  the 
doings  and  the  teachings  of  universities  that  grow  out  of  the 
genius  of  the  country  and  are  able  to  lead  it;  universities  that  are 
light-hearted,  confident,  sincere;  that  are  sane  enough  to  keep  in 
the  middle  of  the  road,  scientific  enough  to  unlock  new  truth,  and 
forceful  enough  to  repel  error ;  that  are  at  once  unselfish,  tolerant, 
scholarly,  democratic,  patriotic,  and  fearless  American  universities. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  EIGHTH  ANNUAL  REPORT 

OF  NEW  YORK  STATE  EDUCATION 

DEPARTMENT 


INTRODUCTION    TO    EIGHTH    ANNUAL    REPORT    OF 
NEW    YORK    STATE    EDUCATION    DEPARTMENT 

The  Education  Department  is  the  instrumentality  by  which  the 
State  of  New  York  now  carries  on  all  its  innumerable  activities 
for  the  schooling  of  its  children  and  the  culture  of  its  people.  Of 
course  the  organizations  and  agencies  voluntarily  created  by  small 
groups  of  people  and  having  educational  ends  in  view,  can  hardly 
be  numbered,  and  of  course  the  State  encourages  all  of  these  to 
act  upon  their  own  ideas  and  pursue  their  own  ends,  for  it  knows 
very  well  that  its  primacy  and  prestige  are  not  only  expressed 
by  what  the  State  government  does,  but  are  dependent  upon 
the  political  independence,  the  moral  and  sociological  ideals, 
and  the  educational  energy  in  the  body  of  people.  Even  these 
organizations,  notwithstanding  their  freedom  to  go  and  come  as 
they  will,  interlace  with  the  affairs  of  the  Education  Department, 
for  if  they  are  corporations  they  are  chartered  by  it;  if  what  they 
do  has  any  bearing  upon  admissions  to  the  professions  they  must 
respond  to  the  requirements  of  the  laws  which  it  administers ;  and, 
whatever  their  special  purpose,  they  are  glad  to  share  in  the  bene- 
factions apportioned  by  the  State,  or  in  the  other  advantages  which 
necessarily  grow  out  of  the  cooperation  of  kindred  spirits  actuated 
by  common  aims.  This  bare  allusion  to  this  boundless  field  is  made 
to  suggest  at  the  outset  how  inadequate  an  official  report,  which 
must  needs  deal  with  mere  facts  of  official  routine,  must  be  to 
convey  a  just  conception  of  the  operations  of  the  New  York  State 
Education  Department.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  major 
part  of  its  doings  can  not  be  set  down  in  figures  or  expressed  upon 
a  printed  page.  Yet  what  the  State  provides  and  directs,  the 
vitality  of  the  organization  through  which  it  executes,  and  the 
happenings  of  the  succeeding  years  in  its  official  life,  which  must 
be  treated  in  the  official  reports,  comprise  the  bone  and  sinew  if  not 
the  blood  and  brains  of  what  New  York  does  for  the  common 
culture. 

The  Education  Department  is  a  growth.  Its  organic  life  began 
in  the  year  1784  "  at  the  first  session  after  the  peace  "  when  the 
Legislature  created  the  University  of  the  State  of  New  York.  Its 
advance  has  not  been  without  many  conflicts  and  some  serious  blows, 
but  it  has  been  as  steady,  as  aggressive,  as  broad-minded,  and  as 

159 


i6o 

self-confident  as  the  State  itself.  But  so  far  as  we  can  see,  the 
internecine  conflicts  at  least  ended  with  the  Unification  Act  of  1904, 
and  the  noble  concern  of  the  people  of  the  State  in  the  matters  com- 
mitted to  the  Department  is  exemplified  in  its  steadily  augmenting 
activities,  and  concretely  expressed  in  the  beautiful  and  monu- 
mental building  that  is  almost  ready  for  its  exclusive  use. 

The  data  in  this  report  cover  the  school  year  terminating  July 
31,  191 1,  but  it  is  customary  in  such  documents  to  refer  to  unusual 
or  important  facts  occurring  up  to  the  time  of  its  presentation  to 
the  Legislature. 

This  report  is  presented  to  the  Legislature  of  19 12,  and  the  Legis- 
lature of  191 2  marks  the  passage  of  an  even  hundred  years  since 
the  Legislature  passed  an  act  creating  a  State  officer  to  be  known 
as  the  State  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools.  No  such  step 
had  been  taken  before  by  any  state ;  nor  was  a  similar  step  taken  by 
any  other  state  for  many  years  thereafter.  In  1784  New  York  had 
created  The  University  of  the  State  of  Nezu  York  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Board  of  Regents,  but  this  had  particular  reference  to 
the  encouragement  of  colleges  and  academies.  If  there  was  any 
thought  that  the  operations  of  "  The  U/niversity  "  would  extend  to 
the  upbuilding  of  a  system  of  common  elementary  schools,  it  was 
not  disclosed  and  certainly  it  was  not  realized.  In  1795  the  Legis- 
lature had  made  an  appropriation  for  the  encouragement  of  ele- 
mentary and  common  schools,  but  it  was  only  temporary  if  not 
fitful  legislation;  it  evidenced  the  purpose  of  the  State  but  it  also 
evidenced  the  fact  that  the  State  was  not  yet  quite  able  to  see  how 
to  realize  its  purpose  in  a  substantial  and  enduring  way.  In  1802 
Governor  George  Clinton  in  his  message  to  the  Legislature  said: 
"  The  system  of  common  schools  having  been  discontinued  and  the 
advantages  to  morals,  liberty  and  good  government  arising  from 
the  general  diffusion  of  knowledge  being  universally  admitted,  per- 
mit me  to  recommend  this  object  to  your  deliberate  attention.  The 
failure  of  one  experiment  for  the  attainment  of  an  important  object 
ought  not  to  discourage  other  attempts."  The  "  failure  "  to  which 
the  heroic  old  Governor  alluded  is  in  danger  of  being  interpreted 
too  broadly.  He  did  not  mean  that  the  little  local  schools  had  all 
been  closed  up,  but  that  the  effort  to  renew  the  State  appropriation 
for  elementary  schools  which  had  been  made  in  1795  and  expired 
in  1800  had  failed,  and  that  therefore  the  creation  upon  a  perma- 
nent basis  of  a  State  system  of  schools  had  failed.  The  fact  is  that 
perhaps  for  reasons  that  appear  way  back  in  her  early  history,  New 


i6i 

York  was  thinking  of  a  State  system  of  schools  when  other  states 
were  only  thinking  about  isolated  schools ;  indeed,  when  other  states 
were  assuming  that  it  would  be  an  imperious  and  sad  limitation 
upon  liberty  and  democracy  if  any  individual  school  lost  any  of  its 
individuality  in  a  system  of  schools,  even  though  such  a  system  was 
vital  to  its  efficiency  if  not  to  its  existence,  to  its  power  if  not  to 
its  life. 

Governor  Clinton  recurred  to  the  matter  in  1803  and  again  in 
1804.  In  1805  Governor  Morgan  Lewis  made  it  the  subject  of 
a  special  and  comprehensive  message  to  the  Legislature.  He  pre- 
sented a  broad  scheme  to  be  carried  out  by  the  Regents  of 
the  University,  but  the  long  to  be  continued  opposition  to  the 
subordination  of  the  elementary  schools  to  the  University  had  al- 
ready begun  and  the  Governor's  scheme  entirely  failed  except  that 
it  did  result  in  the  establishment  of  a  permanent  common  school 
fund  in  1805,  and  that,  as  often  happens,  led  to  something  even 
better  in  1812.  The  something  better  was  the  creation  of  the  office 
of  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools,  and  happily  Gideon  Haw- 
ley  was  chosen  to  fill  it. 

So  this  is  a  centennial  Legislature  so  far  as  education  is  con- 
cerned. It  is  a  happy  and  somewhat  interesting  coincidence  that 
this  year,  which  marks  the  centennial  of  the  first  move  by  any 
Legislature  in  an  American  state  to  set  up  a  state  organization 
whose  business  it  should  be  to  bind  the  schools  into  an  edu- 
cational system  and  to  extend  that  system  until  it  should  include 
every  home  and  make  use  of  every  educational  resource  to  promote 
the  common  culture,  should  be  itself  made  noteworthy  by  the  same 
state  dedicating,  for  the  first  time  in  America,  to  the  exclusive  use 
of  its  educational  work,  a  building  of  such  spaciousness  and  beauty 
as  to  rival  all  of  the  state  capitols  of  the  nation.  But  it  is  as  fitting 
and  significant  as  it  is  pleasing  and  interesting. 

The  body  of  this  report  for  the  school  year  ending  July  31,  191 1 
will  be  made  up  of  rather  comprehensive  discussions  of  the  three 
great  subdivisions  of  our  work,  namely,  elementary,  secondary,  and 
higher,  by  the  three  Assistant  Commissioners  of  Education  respect- 
ively, who  have  the  more  immediate  supervision  thereof,  and  of 
more  exact  statements  covering  the  operations  of  ten  of  the  four- 
teen divisions  of  the  Department  prepared  respectively  by  the 
Chiefs  of  those  divisions.  Perhaps  in  fairness  to  these  officers  it 
should  be  said  that  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  or  the  editor 
working  under  his  direction,  has  felt  free  to  eliminate  some  matter 


1 62 

prepared  by  them  in  order  to  prevent  repetitions  and  make  the 
whole  more  harmonious,  and  also  to  make  other  minor  modifica- 
tions, but  the  work  of  preparation  has  in  the  main  been  theirs. 
This  is  something  of  a  departure  from  the  plan  followed  in  pre- 
vious years. 

Some  general  summaries  may  be  assembled  here  for  the  con- 
venience of  the  reader. 

STATE  APPROPRIATIONS 

Balance  of  appropriations  October  i,  1910 $382  647  68 

Appropriations   in  fiscal  year 7  051  074  51 

Total  available   funds 7  433  722  19 

Expenditures   7  117  988  01 

Balance  October  1,  191 1 $315  734  18 

In  the  year  the  Department  received  from  various  outside 
sources  fees  amounting  to  $67,017.78  and  paid  the  same  into  the 
State  treasury. 

Approximately  80  per  cent  of  the  moneys  appropriated  by  the 
State  to  education  are  apportioned  under  the  law  to  local  schools 
and  the  training  of  teachers  therefor;  about  11  per  cent  of  the 
appropriations  went  to  support  what  may  be  called  "  outside " 
activities  of  the  Department,  such  as  normal  schools,  Indian 
schools,  institutes,  school  comvr  issioners,  etc. ;  and  about  9  per 
cent  went  to  the  support  of  the  "  inside  "  work  of  the  Department, 
such  as  salaries,  traveling,  furniture,  postage,  express,  printing 
etc.  In  the  year  an  extraordinary  appropriation  of  $35,000  was 
made  to  cover  rents,  moving  charges  and  the  like,  in  consequence 
of  the  fire  in  the  Capitol.  Appropriations  made  for  the  Education 
Building  or  for  the  restoration  of  the  State  Library  do  not  enter 
into  these  statements. 

PUBLIC   SCHOOLS 

There  are  n,777  school  districts  and  12,094  public  schoolhouses 
in  the  State.  The  total  attendance  of  pupils  between  five  and 
eighteen  years  of  age  was  1,421,843.  The  number  over  eighteen 
years  old  was  14,737.  The  number  of  certificated  teachers  em- 
ployed for  160  days  or  more  was  43,117.  The  number  of  teach- 
ers employed-  for  some  portion  of  the  year  was  45.3^6,  of  whom 


163 

5086  were  men  and  40,280  were  women.  The  number  of  men  is 
70  less  and  of  women  575  more  than  in  the  preceding  year.  The 
total  amount  expended  for  teachers'  wages  was  $36,169,810.65.  The 
average  annual  salary  of  teachers  was  $838.88.  There  was  ex- 
pended for  buildings,  sites,  repairs,  furniture  etc.  $6,686,445.38; 
for  apparatus  $115,310.86;  for  libraries  $249,780.84;  for  other  in- 
cidental expens'es  $10,016,791.59.  The  total  sum  raised  by  tax  and 
expended  for  schools  was  $53,238,139.32. 

OTHER  THAN  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS 
The  attendance  upon  the  academies  reporting  to  the  Department 
was  47,480,  upon  normal  schools  6965,  upon  teachers  training 
classes  and  schools  3888,  upon  universities,  colleges  and  profes- 
sional schools  36,215,  upon  Indian  schools  851,  upon  evening 
schools,  146,422,  and  upon  private  schools  of  all  grades  according 
to  our  best  estimates  225,000. 

INVESTMENTS  IN  SCHOOLS 

The  total  investment  of  the  State  of  New  York  in  school  prop- 
erty is  $363,790,388,  of  which  $171,155,030  is  in  elementary  school 
property,  $30,232,576  in  high  school  property,  $25,976,465  in  acad- 
emy property,  and  $127,147,557  is  in  the  property  of  universities, 
colleges  and  professional  schools. 

The  total  expenditures  in  the  school  year  1910-11  for  ele- 
mentary schools  was  $45,190,382.50,  for  high  schools  $8,751,215.- 
53,  for  academies  $4,119,024.29,  for  universities,  colleges  and  pro- 
fessional schools  $16,396,373.64,  for  special  higher  institutions 
$373,852.65,  for  normal  schools  $457,371-57,  for  training  classes 
and  schools  $392,195.25,  for  Indian  schools  $17,138.74,  for  evening 
schools  $929,377.50,  and  for  trade  and  vocational  schools  $236,- 
780.64.  The  grand  total  of  money  paid  by  the  people  of  the 
State  for  schools  in  the  year  was  $76,863,712.11. 

The  colleges  of  the  State,  by  which  is  meant*  not  only  the  sep- 
arate institutions  but  those  which  are  associated  together  in  uni- 
versities, and  also  the  professional  and  technical  schools  above 
the  secondary  grade,  move  forward  in  numbers  and  means  at 
least.  Last  year  these  institutions  had  4663  teachers  and  36,215 
students  The  expenditures  for  higher  education  during  the  year 
were  $16,395,373.64  The  total  value  of  collegiate  property  is 
$135,808,677.81  and  the  net  assets  $127,147,557.43-  In  tne  seven 
years  since  educational  unification  the  college  faculties  increased 
6 


1 64 

25  per  cent,  the  students  23.6  per  cent,  the  expenditures  increased 
32.9  per  cent,  the  investments  46  per  cent  and  the  net  holdings 
49.7  per  cent.  This  rapid  evolution  is  mainly  due  to  the  extension 
of  scientific  applications  to  industrial  operations.  The  reactive 
influence  of  this  upon  the  quality  of  American  scholarship  is  a 
mooted  question.  There  is  apparently  not  much  occasion  for 
anxiety  about  that  because  scholarship  that  is  real  will  live  and 
expand  and  if  anything  is  entitled  to  the  benefit  of  scientific  learn- 
ing it  is  industry.  It  may,  however,  be  observed  that  there  is 
some  ground  for  questioning  whether  the  overwhelming  motive  in 
American  universities  is  not  numbers  and  wealth  rather  than 
scholarship,  bigness  rather  than  greatness,  influence  rather  than 
helpfulness  to  all.  In  any  event,  whether  there  is  necessity  for  the 
reflection  or  not,  it  is  worth  thinking  about. 

The  enormous  amount  of  details  handled  by  the  Department  may 
be  somewhat  indicated  by  the  fact  that  last  year  more  than  half  a 
million  answer  papers  were  rated  in  examinations  and  that  49,030 
certificates  were  issued.  But  this  signifies  only  one  phase  of  one 
division  of  our  work.  The  examination  papers  have  to  be  pre- 
pared to  accord  with  and  stimulate  the  work  in  the  schools;  the 
examinations  have  to  be  supervised;  the  correspondence  associated 
with  the  examinations  is  vast  and  must  of  necessity  be  painstaking 
and  exact.  It  is  small  wonder  that  some  candidates  are  aggrieved, 
yet  on  the  whole  the  matter  runs  with  little  difficulty;  indeed  with 
much  less  difficulty  than  before  the  creation  of  the  State  Examina- 
tions Board  composed  of  leading  teachers  in  the  elementary,  second- 
ary and  advanced  schools.  And  it  distinguishes  and  uplifts  New 
York  education  in  the  opinion  of  the  country.  It  supplies  the  basis 
of  preparedness  for  professional  study  and  creates  a  firmer  basis  of 
professional  scholarship  and  competency  than  obtains  in  any  other 
state. 

The  vast  work  carried  on  by  the  Department  in  general  will  be 
suggested  in  the  succeeding  pages  by  the  Assistant  Commissioners, 
the  Chiefs  of  the  working  divisions,  and  the  Directors  of  the  Lib- 
rary and  the  Museum.  This  year  they  have  been  asked  to  set  forth 
their  work  under  their  own  names.  One  who  will  go  over  these 
pages  can  not  fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  responsibilities  of  the 
Education  Department.  In  ordinary  fairness  it  must  be  said  that 
these  continually  multiplying  responsibilities  have  in  all  recent  years 
had  to  be  met  under  most  disadvantageous  circumstances  and  that 
the  disadvantages  were  much  aggravated  by  the  fire  in  the  Capitol 
on  the  29th  of  March. 


i65 

Our  divisions  of  work  have  been  so  scattered  about  the  city  and 
so  hampered  by  inconveniences  of  living  and  work  as  to  make  unity 
and  efficiency  extremely  difficult.  In  my  judgment  the  officers  and 
employees  of  the  Department  are  entitled  to  commendation  for 
having  held  on  to  and  held  up  standards  as  well  as  they  have.  And 
now  we  look  forward  with  eager  anticipation  to  being  reunited  and 
made  comfortable  in  the  new  Education  Building,  for  which  we 
have  to  thank  the  government  of  the  State,  and  in  which  we  hope 
to  render  to  the  people  of  New  York  a  more  excellent  educational 
service  than  they  have  ever  had. 


THE  STORY  OP  THE  ERECTION  OF  THE 
EDUCATION  BUILDING 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  ERECTION  OF  THE  EDUCATION 

BUILDING1 

The  effort  for  the  erection  of  the  State  Education  Building  had 
one  controlling  motive,  and  that  was  to  consolidate  and  gain  added 
support  and  keener  energy  for  the  educational  activities  of  the  State. 
It  was  the  direct  outgrowth  of  the  unification  of  the  two  State  edu- 
cation departments  —  the  Regents  of  the  University  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  created  by  the  Legislature  at  the  "  first  session  after  the 
peace''  in  1784,  to  charter  and  supervise  the  higher  institutions,  and 
the  Department  of  Public  Instruction,  going  back  to  the  first  act  of 
any  American  state  creating  a  state  system  of  common  schools  and 
a  state  department  to  supervise  them,  which  was  in  1812.  This 
unification  was  provided  for  by  law  in  1904.  It,  or  something  else 
very  decisive,  was  made  necessary  by  the  clashing  between  the  two 
departments  which  had  shown  itself  on  many  occasions  and  in  the 
preceding  decade  had  become  so  acute  that  the  people  and  the  Legis- 
lature felt  it  to  be  intolerable.  The  Unification  Act  was  not  very 
well  suited  to  its  purposes  ;  there  was  opportunity  enough  for  further 
trouble  in  operating  it ;  indeed,  it  was  far  from  acceptable  to  all  and 
further  trouble  seemed  inevitable.  The  Regents  and  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Education  had,  however,  by  a  rational  and  conciliatory 
course  managed  to  realize  the  wishes  of  the  people  and  to  bind 
together  completely  and  actually  harmonize  the  feelings  of  the 
educational  forces  of  the  State. 

It  was  felt  that  there  ought  to  be  a  monument  to  this  epochal  ac- 
complishment and  that  it  ought  to  be  in  a  form  which  would  ex- 
press the  satisfaction  of  the  State  at  the  actual  accomplishment  of 
the  educational  unification  which  many  had  sought  so  long.  It  was 
also  felt  that  there  should  be  some  graphic  expression  which  would 
vividly  portray  to  all  the  people  of  the  State  and  to  the  whole  world, 
the  interest  which  New  York  has  in  both  popular  and  higher  educa- 
tion.  It  seemed  fit  that  the  commonwealth  which  had  always  stood 
for  the  most  centralized  and  efficient  support  of  public  education ;  in 
which  the  first  common  school  was  established ;  which  was  the  first 


1  Special  theme,  written  by  the  Commissioner  of  Education  for  the  Eighth 
Annual  Report  of  the  State  Education  Department    (1912). 

169 


170 

to  create  a  state  board  to  charter  and  supervise  colleges  and  acad- 
emies; the  first  to  appropriate  money  to  common  schools  and  to 
establish  a  permanent  common  school  fund;  the  first  to  create  the 
office  of  State  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools  and  a  State  De- 
partment of  Public  Instruction;  and  the  first  to  unify  all  its  muni- 
ficent and  innumerable  educational  activities  under  one  administra- 
tion, should  be  the  first  to  erect  a  separate  building  which  should 
stand  exclusively  and  aggressively  for  its  concern  about  the  intel- 
ligence and  the  character  of  all  its  people.  And  withal  it  seemed  im- 
portant to  do  whatever  might  be  done  to  commit  all  future  Governors 
and  Legislatures  to  still  greater  provision  and  yet  more  earnest  en- 
deavor for  the  widest  possible  diffusion  of  all  learning. 

The  obvious  need  would  be  met  and  the  natural  impulses  of  all 
this  would  be  realized  in  a  beautiful  and  impressive  building  more 
completely  than  in  any  other  way.  But  the  movement  for  a  building 
had  other  than  sentimental  or  philosophical  support.  There  were 
arguments  enough  for  it  which  would  appeal  to  the  press  and  which 
the  Governor  and  the  legislative  committees  would  not  want  to 
ignore.  The  Education  Department  was  quartered  in  a  half  dozen 
places  in  the  Capitol  and  in  other  buildings  in  the  city  of  Albany. 
Other  departments  as  well  as  the  Education  Department  were  need- 
ing more  room,  and  would  be  glad  to  have  the  Education  Depart- 
ment move  out.  Other  departments  with  superior  political  influence 
or  readier  access  to  the  seat  of  power  had  often  induced  the  Trus- 
tees of  Public  Buildings  to  take  one  room  after  another  from  the 
Education  Department  for  their  accommodation.  The  Education 
Department  was  thus  operating  at  great  inconvenience  and  disad- 
vantage. Unity  and  discipline  and  efficiency  were  almost  impossible. 
Nor  was  that  the  worst.  Its  priceless  accumulations  of  books  and  his- 
torical manuscripts  could  not  be  properly  cared  for  and  were  actually 
in  danger  from  fire.  Of  course  they  were  largely  housed  in  a  "  fire- 
proof building  "  and  there  was  no  thought  of  such  a  conflagration 
as  has  since  visited  them,  but  the  danger  from  fire  to  the  contents  of 
single  rooms  was  not  only  actual  but  was  seriously  asserted.  Even 
more;  the  danger  extended  to  human  life.  The  Department  had 
many  employees  occupying  tower  rooms,  far  from  the  ground,  who 
might  be  shut  off  from  escape  in  case  of  fire.  And  aside  from  this 
menace,  employees  were  obliged  to  occupy  unhygienic  quarters  and 
the  Department  development  was  being  arrested.  Thus  the  concrete 
and  practical  reasons  for  a  building  supplemented  the  more  senti- 
mental ones,  and  together  they  could  not  fail  to  make  the  path  of 
duty  and  good  policy  clear  enough  to  the  Commissioner  of  Educa- 


tion  who  was  under  the  law  the  executive  head  of  the  Education 
Department  and  the  custodian  of  its  collections. 

The  first  official  step  looking  to  the  erection  of  the  Education 
Building  was  taken  by  the  Commissioner  of  Education  on  January 
1 8,  1905,  in  the  following  statement  to  the  Board  of  Regents : 

Separate  Building  for  Education  Department 

The  Education  Department  has  nearly,  or  quite,  three  hundred 
employees  in  its  service.  The  rooms  provided  for  the  Department 
are  wholly  inadequate  to  the  convenience  or  efficiency  of  this  large 
force.  Several  rooms  are  improperly  congested  and  several  lack 
in  conveniences  that  are  imperative.  A  considerable  number  of  our 
employees  are  in  tower  rooms,  from  which  escape  would  be  very 
difficulty  if  not  impossible,  in  case  of  fire.  The  whole  Capitol  is 
congested  in  some  measure  and  undoubtedly  all  its  occupants  would 
be  desirous  of  having  the  Education  Department  provided  for 
otherwise,  in  order  to  enlarge  accommodations  for  those  who  would 
remain.  The  State  Library  is  in  imperative  need  of  more  room  — 
indeed,  of  much  more  room.  Its  growth  must  be  arrested  unless 
more  adequate  provision  is  made  for  it  at  an  early  date. 

More  than  this,  it  may  be  said  that  the  erection  of  a  building 
by  the  State,  which  should  be  wholly  given  to  the  uses  of  the  Edu- 
cation Department,  including  the  Library  and  the  State  Museum, 
would  be  a  very  decided  advantage  to  all  of  the  educational  activi- 
ties of  the  State.  It  would  distinctly  represent  the  interests  of  the 
State  in  education.  It  would  uplift  and  dignify  the  importance  of 
the  educational  work  of  the  State  in  the  minds  of  the  masses.  The 
matter  has  been  discussed  for  several  years  and  it  seems  to  be  very 
commonly  accepted  that  such  a  building  should  be  provided.  Gov- 
ernor Higgins  in  his  recent  annual  message  to  the  (Legislature 
refers  to  the  proposition  and  not  unfavorably. 

As  to  just  what  the  initiatory  steps  ought  to  be,  should  only  be 
determined  after  serious  discussion,  but  it  seems  to  me  clear  that 
we  should  present  the  matter  in  all  seriousness  to  the  Legislature 
now  in  session.  It  might  be  well  to  go  no  further  this  year  than  to 
ask  the  State  to  commit  itself  to  the  proposition  and  take  measures 
for  acquiring  a  suitable  site  near  the  Capitol  and  for  causing  the 
State  Architect  to  prepare  the  necessary  plans  and  secure  tenders 
with  proper  security  for  the  completion  of  the  structure,  and  make 
report  to  the  next  Legislature.  Possibly  it  might  be  well  to  advise 
the  creation  of  a  special  commission,  consisting  of  prominent  State 
officials,  to  attend  to  the  matter.  I  am  sure,  however,  that  if  it  were 
committed  to  the  present  Superintendent  of  Buildings,  it  would  be 
well  managed. 

I  submit  the  whole  matter  to  your  consideration,  with  the  recom- 
mendation that  the  committee  on  legislation  be  directed  to  take 
steps  for  carrying  the  suggestion  into  effect. 


172 

Of  course  this  communication  to  the  Regents  was  gratifying 
to  them.  The  matter  had  been  many  times  spoken  of  and  they 
fully  realized  the  importance  of  it.  Possibly  it  had  been  talked 
of  so  many  times  without  result  that  they  had  little  confidence 
that  the  thought  could  be  realized.  They  well  knew  that  there 
would  be  some  very  natural  opposition  throughout  the  State  to 
starting  another  large  State  building  at  Albany.  Yet  it  was  well 
agreed  that  the  proposition  was  a  sound  one  and  the  following 
resolution  was  unanimously  adopted: 

Voted,  That  the  recommendation  of  the  Commissioner  of  Edu- 
cation concerning  a  separate  building  for  the  Education  Department 
be  referred  to  the  special  committee  on  legislation  together  with  the 
Commissioner  with  power  to  act  upon  their  discretion  in  the  matter. 

Nothing  having  resulted  in  the  meantime,  the  Commissioner 
of  Education  recurred  to  the  matter  at  a  meeting  of  the  Regents 
December  14,  1905,  in  the  following  statement: 

New  Education  Building 

In  my  opinion  the  Department  will  fall  short  of  meeting  its  re- 
sponsibilities to  the  high  trusts  in  its  care  unless  it  makes  very 
earnest  and  formal  representations  to  the  Governor  and  the  Legis- 
lature of  the  imperative  need  of  larger  provision  for  the  State  Li- 
brary, the  State  Museum  and  the  working  forces  of  the  Department. 
The  officers  and  employees  of  the  Department,  numbering  almost 
three  hundred  persons,  are  in  widely  separated  rooms  on  five  floors 
of  the  Capitol  and  also  in  the  old  State  House  and  the  Geological 
and  Agricultural  Hall.  We  are  also  renting  an  old  malthouse  for 
storage  purposes.  This  makes  it  difficult  to  create  unity  and  en- 
force discipline.  But  perhaps  worse  than  this,  the  accommodations 
in  many  cases  were  never  intended  for  their  present  uses  and  are 
often  not  only  unsuitable  because  in  out  of  the  way  places  and  lack- 
ing conveniences  and  desirable  lighting  for  office  work,  but  are 
unsanitary  and  dangerous  in  case  of  fire.  Beyond  this,  the  State 
Library  is  already  being  arrested  in  its  development  by  lack  of  space 
for  its  constant  accumulations,  and  its  invaluable  collections  of  his- 
toric documents  and  relics  are  not  only  in  need  of  better  accom- 
modations which  will  enable  them  to  be  better  kept  and  at  the  same 
time  more  accessible  to  students,  but  they  are  not  growing  as  they 
would  if  there  were  enlarged  space  and  better  accommodations  for 
them.  Beyond  the  immediate  and  pressing  needs  of  the  situation 
is  the  indubitable  fact  that  if  the  State  will  signalize  the  adminis- 
trative unification  of  its  educational  machinery,  which  in  extent  and 
articulated  relations  and  potential  possibilities  is  exceedingly  con- 
spicuous in  the  country,  by  a  separate  building  which  will  make 
suitable  provision  for  its  educational  work  and  stand,  in  the  popular 
mind,  for  the  great  interest  of  the  State  in  intellectual  activities  and 


i/3 

moral  progress,  it  will  take  a  great  step  not  yet  taken  by  any  other 
state  and  one  even  more  consequential  and  beneficent  than  many  of 
the  generation  which  does  it  are  likely  to  realize. 

I  am  not  without  very  confident  thought  that  appropriate  repre- 
sentations to  the  proper  authorities  will  result  in  desirable  action, 
but  whether  it  does  or  not,  I  entertain  no  doubt  of  our  duty  in  the 
premises  and  I  trust  we  shall  no  longer  defer  taking  a  definite  and 
decisive  attitude  in  relation  to  this  all-important  matter. 

Concerning  this  the  Board,  on  motion  of  Regent  Philbin, 
passed  the  following: 

Voted,  That  in  the  judgment  of  the  Board  of  Regents,  the  needs 
of  the  Education  Department  and  particularly  of  the  State  Library 
and  State  Museum  for  better  accommodations  are  very  serious. 
The  employees  of  the  Department  are  so  widely  separated  as  to 
make  desirable  unity  very  difficult  of  attainment,  and  in  many  cases 
rooms  are  being  used  which  are  lacking  in  suitable  conveniences  if 
not  in  proper  safeguards  against  ill-health  and  accident.  The 
growth  of  the  State  Library  is  being  arrested  for  lack  of  room  and 
the  historic  collections  of  the  Library  are  not  as  well  accommodated 
or  made  as  serviceable  to  students  as  they  clearly  should  be.  This 
is  a  hindrance  to  the  uniform  development  of  the  State  which  it 
can  not  afford  and  to  which  the  people  are  opposed.  The  Board  of 
Regents  also  represents  to  the  responsible  authorities  the  very  great 
desirability  of  housing  all  of  the  interests  in  charge  of  the  Educa- 
tion Department  in  a  separate  and  distinctive  building,  which  will 
not  only  promote  administrative  efficiency  but  stand  in  the  popular 
mind  for  the  interest,  wisdom  and  aggressiveness  of  the  State  con- 
cerning intellectual  and  moral  advancement,  and  that  a  committee 
be  appointed  to  take  such  steps  as  may  be  advisable  to  procure  the 
much  needed  separate  building  for  the  purposes  of  all  branches  of 
the  Education  Department. 

The  committee  appointed  pursuant  to  the  foregoing  vote  con- 
sisted of  Regents  Sexton,  Lauterbach  and  Francis. 

The  Commissioner  of  Education  often  conferred  with  Governor 
Higgins  about  the  proposition  and  was  always  assured  that  it 
had  -the  general  sympathy  of  the  Governor,  although  he  ex- 
pressed some  misgivings  as  to  how  the  expense  of  such  an 
important  undertaking  could  be  met  from  ordinary  revenues, 
and  also  some  apprehension  about  the  possibility  of  carrying 
out  such  a  project  without  a  scandal,  from  which  he  fondly  hoped 
that  his  administration  might  be  free. 

Early  in  the  session  of  the  Legislature  of  1906  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Education  asked  Senator  John  Raines,  President  of 
the  Senate,  with  whom  he  had  been  long  and  agreeably  ac- 
quainted, to  give  the  matter  his  very  serious  attention,  with  the 


174 

result  that  it  was  'fully  discussed  between  them,  and  Senator 
Raines  agreed  to  give  the  proposition  his  best  support.  His 
support  was  extremely  meaningful.  He  opened  the  campaign 
by  introducing  in  the  Senate  on  February  14,  1906,  the  following 
preamble  and  resolution  which  were  unanimously  adopted : 

Whereas,  it  has  for  some  years  been  commonly  alleged  that  the 
Capitof  affords  very  inadequate  and  unsuitable  working  room  for 
the  constantly  multiplying  departments  of  the  State  government; 
that  rooms  are  too  much  congested;  that  the  clerical  force  often 
lacks  necessary  conveniences  and,  in  many  instances,  is  quartered 
in  tower  rooms  and  out  of  the  way  places  never  intended  for  clerical 
work,  and  that,  notwithstanding  this,  space  which  is  very  much 
needed  for  the  steadily  expanding  work  can  not  be  had,  and 

Whereas,  the  State  Museum  with  its  valuable  historic  and  scien- 
tific collections  is  housed  in  antiquated  and  inconvenient  buildings 
and  is  in  constant  danger  of  destruction  by  fire,  and 

Whereas,  the  State  Board  of  Regents  has  recently  certified  to  the 
Governor  and  the  Legislature  that  for  lack  of  room  the  books,  his- 
torical documents  and  relics  of  the  State  Library  can  not  be  prop- 
erly cared  for,  and  that  the  Library,  which  is  clearly  the  foremost 
state  library  in  the  United  States,  is  being  arrested  in  its  growth 
and  permanently  injured  for  lack  of  proper  accommodations; 
therefore 

Resolved,  that  the  finance  committee  of  the  Senate  be  requested 
to  inquire  into  said  matters  and  report  'the  facts  relating  thereto 
with  such  recommendations  and  bill  as  the  committee  shall  think 
advisable. 

On  the  29th  of  March  Senator  Raines  introduced  the  following 
bill,  prepared  by  the  Commissioner  of  Education : 

AN  ACT 

Directing  the  acquisition  of  a  site  for  and  the  erection  of  a  State 
Education  Building,  providing  for  the  State  Library  and  the 
State  Museum,  and  making  an  appropriation  therefor. 

The  People  of  the  State  of  New  York,  represented  in  Senate  and 
Assembly,  do  enact  as  follows: 

Section  1  The  Trustees  of  Public  Buildings  are  hereby  directed 
and  empowered  to  determine  upon  a  suitable  site  near  the  Capitol 
for  a  building  for  the  use  of  the  State  Education  Department,  in- 
cluding the  State  Library  and  the  State  Museum  of  Natural  History, 
and  to  acquire  the  same  either  by  condemnation  under  the  power 
of  eminent  domain  through  proceedings  instituted  by  the  Attorney 
General,  or  by  negotiation  and  agreement  with  the  present  owner 
or  owners  as  to  the  just  valuation  thereof,  and  also  to  proceed  to  the 
erection  of  a  suitable  building  thereon  for  the  purposes  provided 
herein. 


175 

§  2  The  State  Architect  shall  prepare  plans,  drawings  and  speci- 
fications for  a  building  which  shall  be  of  stone  and  steel  construc- 
tion and  fireproof  throughout,  and  which  shall  provide  accommoda- 
tions for  the  officers  and  employees  of  the  Education  Department, 
with  suitable  accommodations  for  the  safe  and  proper  care  for  the 
collections  of  every  description  belonging  to  the  State  Library  and 
the  State  Museum  and  shall  reasonably  anticipate  the  growth  of 
such  collections.  Such  plans  shall  be  so  arranged  as  to  permit  of 
the  future  extension  of  the  library  stacks  and  of  the  museum  spaces 
without  other  changes  in  said  building.  Suitable  rooms  for  th'e 
Board  of  Regents  and  for  the  occasional  meeting  of  educational, 
literary,  historical  and  scientific  assemblages  shall  be  included,  and 
all  proper  and  reasonable  conveniences,  with  ample  storage  accom- 
modations, shall  be  provided.  Such  plans  and  specifications  shall 
be  approved  by  the  Trustees  of  Public  Buildings,  the  Board  of 
Regents  of  the  University  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and  the  Com- 
missioner of  Education. 

§  3  When  such  plans  and  specifications  have  been  made  and 
approved  as  herein  provided,  the  Trustees  of  Public  Buildings  shall 
advertise  in  not  less  than  five  nor  more  than  ten  daily  newspapers 
of  the  State  for  tenders  from  contractors  and  builders  setting  forth 
the  terms  upon  which  they  will  undertake  the  erection  of  said  build- 
ing according  to  said  plans  and  specifications.  Said  tenders  shall 
be  accompanied  by  such  guaranty  bonds  or  cash  deposits  as  shall  be 
required  by  said  Trustees  of  Public  Buildings  and  shall  satisfy  said 
trustees  that  the  person,  firm,  or  corporation  proposing  to  erect  the 
whole  or  some  part  of  said  building  will  enter  into  contract  and 
complete  the  work  proposed  to  be  done  according  to  the  terms  of 
the  propositions  presented.  Said  trustees  may,  in  their  discretion, 
call  for  tenders  upon  the  erection  of  the  whole  of  said  building  by 
one  contracting  party,  or  for  the  performance  of  different  parts  of 
the  work  by  different  parties,  or  for  both  of  such  plans  of  procedure. 

§  4  If  said  Trustees  of  Public  Buildings  shall  obtain  satisfactory 
tenders  proposing  to  erect  and  complete  said  building  before  July  I, 
1909,  for  a  sum  not  exceeding  three  millions,  five  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  including  the  cost  of  the  site,  said  trustees  are  authorized 
and  empowered  to  enter  into  contract  for  the  performance  of  said 
work  with  the  party  or  parties  who,  being  in  the  judgment  of  said 
trustees  well  capable  of  performing  the  work,  shall  propose  the 
terms  which  are  the  most  advantageous  to  the  State.  If  said  trus- 
tees shall  receive  no  satisfactory  tender  for  the  completion  of  the 
work,  including  the  purchase  of  site,  for  a  sum  not  exceeding  three 
millions,  five  hundred  thousand  dollars^  said  trustees  shall  enter 
into  no  contract  for  the  erection  of  the  building  and  shall  proceed 
no  further  than  the  acquisition  of  a  site  therefor  until  the  facts  shall 
have  been  reported  to  and  acted  upon  by  the  Legislature. 

§  5  Upon  the  completion  of  said  Education  Building,  the  Educa- 
tion Department,  including  the  State  Library  and  the  State  Museum, 
shall  occupy  the  same  and  shall  forthwith  vacate  all  rooms  occupied 
by  said  Department  in  the  Capitol,  in  the  old  State  House,  in  the 


176 

Geological  and  Agricultural  Hall,  and  in  any  building  or  buildings 
rented  for  storage  or  other  purposes. 

§  6  The  sum  of  four  hundred  thousand  dollars  is  hereby  appro- 
priated out  of  any  moneys  in  the  treasury  not  otherwise  appropria- 
ted, for  the  purchase  of  a  site  for  said  Education  Building  and  for 
any  expenses  incidental  thereto,  and  also  for  the  services  of  any 
designers  or  draughtsmen  who  may  be  specially  employed  by  the 
State  Architect  for  this  work  with  the  approval  of  the  Governor, 
or  for  any  other  expense  approved  by  the  Governor.  The  money 
shall  be  paid  by  the  Treasurer  upon  the  warrant  of  the  Comptroller 
and  after  the  certificate  of  approval  by  the  Governor. 

§  7    This  act  shall  take  effect  immediately. 

As  time  advanced,  Senator  Raines  became  enthusiastic  over 
the  proposition  and  very  proud  of  his  sponsorship  for  it.  His 
great  influence,  added  to  the  real  importance  of  the  project,  se- 
cured for  it  the  very  thorough  consideration  of  the  Senate  finance 
committee.  All  of  the  members  became  interested  in  it.  Poli- 
tics was  happily  abjured.  No  substantial  opposition  developed. 
It  was  generally  agreed  that  something  must  be  done,  and  the 
committee  gave  a  long  afternoon  to  the  perfection  of  a  bill  that 
would  gain  the  best  ends.  At  one  time  it  was  proposed  to  pro- 
vide quarters  for  the  Court  of  Appeals  in  the  new  building,  but 
Senator  Thomas  F.  Grady,  leader  of  the  minority  in  the  Senate, 
a  long  and  valued  friend  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education, 
stoutly  insisted  that  the  building  should  stand  for  popular  edu- 
cation and  nothing  else,  and  that  view  was  generally  taken.  The 
long  and  practical  experience  of  the  members  of  the  committee 
resulted  in  a  number  of  marked  improvements  to  the  bill  that 
was  before  them.  Going  over  the  measure  sentence  by  sentence, 
they  came  to  a  unanimous  and  cordial  approval  of  it  in  the  form 
in  which  it  finally  became  a  law.  They  perfected  the  scheme  for 
securing  the  most  resultful  architectural  competition  and,  rather 
singularly,  they  enlarged  the  authorized  cost  of  the  structure. 
The  original  bill  provided  $3,500,000  inclusive  of  the  site,  and 
the  committee  provided  $3,500,000  exclusive  of  the  site.  It  was 
supposed  that  the  site  would  cost  in  the  neighborhood  of 
$500,000.  Whether  this  change  in  the  amount  provided  for  in 
the  bill  was  intentional  or  inadvertent  is  not  certain,  but  in  any 
event  it  was  one  about  which  the  Education  Department  would 
not  be  inconsolable. 

On  the  20th  of  April  the  finance  committee  made  the  following 
report  to  the  Senate  in  response  to  the  resolution  of  February 
14th: 


*77 

STATE  EDUCATION  BUILDING 

STATE   OF    NEW    YORK 
ROOM    OF    THE    SENATE    FINANCE    COMMITTEE 

April  20,  1006 
To  the  Senate: 

The  finance  committee  has  given  the  matter  careful  inquiry  and 
consideration,  and  submits  the  following  facts  : 

The  Education  Department  has  general  supervision  of  all  the 
schools  of  the  State,  and  also  of  the  State  Library  and  State 
Museum.  It  has  two  hundred  and  eighty-five  employees.  It  occu- 
pies widely  scattered  rooms  upon  five  different  floors  of  the  Capitol, 
in  the  old'  State  Hall,  in  the  Geological  and  Agricultural  building 
on  State  street,  and  it  rents  for  storage  purposes  an  unsuitable 
structure  formerly  used  as  a  malthouse. 

Perhaps  the  most  urgent  demands  are  on  the  part  of  the  State 
Library. 

STATE    LIBRARY 

In  the  size  and  richness  of  its  collection  the  New  York  State 
Library  ranks  fifth  among  the  libraries  of  America,  the  first  four 
being  the  Library  of  Congress,  the  New  York  Public,  the  Boston 
Public,  and  the  Harvard  University  libraries,  in  the  order  named. 
It  is  easily  first  among  the  state  libraries  of  this  country.  In  physi- 
cal equipment  and  facilities  for  handling  its  collection  it  holds  an 
unenviable  place  near  the  bottom  of  the  list. 

The  library  now  contains  568,317  volumes  (including  duplicates), 
56,076  pictures,  432,433  pamphlets  and  265,000  manuscripts. 

These  manuscripts  include  public  records  obtained  by  gift,  pur- 
chase, and  transfer  from  the  Secretary  of  State,  Comptroller, 
Senate  and  Assembly  clerks  and  other  state  officers  under  concur- 
rent resolution  of  the  Legislature  of  December  15,  1847;  Laws  of 
1859,  chapter  321;  Laws  of  1881,  chapter  120;  and  Laws  of  1892, 
chapter  378,  sections  16  and  20.  They  include  all  that  has  been 
preserved  of  the — 

Papers  of  the  administration  of  the  Director  General  and  Council 
of  the  Dutch  West  India  Company,  1630-64. 

Executive  and  legislative  papers,  other  than  land  'papers,  of  the 
period  of  English  colonial  administration,  1664-1775. 

Transcripts  from  foreign  archives  relating  to  the  colonial  history 
of  the  State,  1611-1782. 

Accounts  of  the  Colony  and  State,  1665-1785. 

Marriage  bonds  given  in  return  for  marriage  licenses  issued  by 
the  secretary  of  the  province,  1752-84. 

Papers  laid  before  the  Provincial  Congress  and  Committee  of 
Safety,  with  their  minutes  and  correspondence,  1775-78. 

Files  of  the  Council  of  Appointment,  1778- 1822. 

Legislative  papers  from  the  organization  of  the  State  govern- 
ment in  1777  to  date. 

State  census  returns,  1801-1892. 


i78 

Correspondence  of  Sir  William  Johnson,  Sir  John  Johnson  and 
Colonel  Guy  Johnson,  1738-90. 

Papers  of  Governor  George  Clinton,  1 763-1844. 

Papers  of  Governor  D.  D.  Tompkins,  1792- 1847. 

In  addition  to  these  are  55,000  miscellaneous  legal  and  private 
papers  relating  to  Vermont,  known  as  the  Henry  Stevens  papers, 
1750-1850;  a  complete  collection  of  autographs  of  the  signers  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence ;  the  first  draft  of  Washington's  Fare- 
well Address ;  the  original  of  his  Opinion  of  his  General  Officers ; 
the  original  draft  of  the  first  Emancipation  Proclamation,  Septem- 
ber 22,  1862;  and  other  documents  not  properly  classed  as  public 
records  of  the  State. 

All  these  priceless  manuscripts  are  crowded  into  a  narrow,  un- 
ventilated  storeroom  which  was  originally  the  top  part  of  a  blind 
corridor  30  feet  high.  For  the  most  part  they  are  packed  in  wooden 
cabinets  and  on  wooden  shelves. 

The  condition  of  the  manuscript  division  is  typical  of  the  condi- 
tions all  over  the  Library.  Everywhere  books  are  crowded  into 
badly  ventilated,  makeshift  rooms  which  are  hot  in  summer  and  cold 
in  winter. 

The  law  library  is  one  of  the  largest  common  and  statute  law 
collections  in  the  world.    Among  its  special  features  are : 

Practically  complete  collections  of  the  statute  law  and  reports  of 
the  courts  of  the  United  States  and  of  Great  Britain  and  her 
colonies. 

Laws  and  reports  of  the  countries  of  continental  Europe,  includ- 
ing France,  Germany,  Russia,  Belgium  and  Holland,  and  the  codes 
of  Spain  and  the  South  American  republics. 

Journals  and  documents  of  legislative  bodies  in  the  United  States 
and  Great  Britain. 

Constitutional  conventions,  debates,  proceedings,  and  journals, 
complete  for  New  York  and  practically  so  for  the  other  states. 

Trials,  collected  and  individual ;  one  of  the  largest  known  collec- 
tions, numbering  over  5000  trials. 

New  York  cases  and  briefs  of  counsel,  indexed  on  cards,  Court 
of  Appeals,  1847-date  (23,456  cases)  ;  Supreme  Court,  1874-date 
(65,364  cases),  the  only  complete  sets  in  existence;  miscellaneous 
courts,  1892-date  (4575  cases). 

Miscellaneous  opinions  of  New  York  Supreme  Court,  1874-date. 

This  very  important  collection  has  become  badly  congested 
through  its  own  growth  and  by  crowding  from  other  divisions  of 
the  Library. 

The  medical  library,  though  it  has  its  headquarters  in  one  of  the 
rooms  on  the  third  floor,  is  really  scattered  all  over  the  Library. 
While  the  Legislature  is  in  session  many  of  its  books  are  not  avail- 
able because  shelved  in  rooms  occupied  by  legislative  committees. 

The  Library  now  occupies  over  fifty  rooms  on  the  third,  fourth, 
fifth,  sixth  and  seventh  floors  of  the  western  end  of  the  Capitol,  the 
last  two  floors  having  been  made  out  of  what  was  originally  the 
attic.     It  also  occupies  storage  space  on  the  first  floor  and  in  the 


179 

attic  over  the  Assembly  chamber,  and  in  an  outside  leased  building 
in  which  are  about  200,000  volumes  of  duplicates  and  less  used 
books,  nailed  up  in  boxes  and  wholly  inaccessible.  This  leased 
building,  an  old  malthouse  several  blocks  distant  from  the  Capitol, 
is  without  heat,  light  or  fire  protection.  If  its  contents  were  where 
they  could  be  properly  shelved  and  listed,  the  Library  could  be 
greatly  enriched  by  the  sale  and  exchange  of  duplicates. 

In  general,  the  present  quarters  were  never  adapted  to  library 
purposes,  are  inconvenient,  poorly  ventilated  and  crowded  with 
temporary  shelving  of  all  sorts.  The  original  stories  of  the  building 
have  each  been  divided  into  three  or  four  mezzanine  floors  to  secure 
shelf  capacity.  Classes  and  subclasses  of  books  have  to  be  sepa- 
rated, and  even  volumes  of  the  same  series  are  frequently  shelved  on 
different  floors  and  at  different  ends  of  the  building.  In  many 
places  books  stand  two  and  three  rows  deep  on  the  shelves,  and 
large  folios  are  shelved  in  accessible  places,  to  the  injury  of 
valuable  files.  Those  next  to  the  roof  are  often  injured  by  rain 
leaking  through  and  tin  pans  are  scattered  around  to  catch  the 
drip  and  save  the  books,  maps  etc.  as  much  as  possible.  The  glass 
roofs  make  the  heat  in  these  upper  floors  unbearable  in  summer, 
and  destructive  to  their  contents.  The  pine  shelving  in  various 
parts  of  the  Library,  with  the  miles  of  electric  wiring,  are  a  con- 
stant menace.  The  constant  shifting  of  books,  made  necessary  by 
the  crowding,  is  expensive.  The  card  catalog  is  two  floors  by 
elevator  from  the  cataloging  department.  Because  of  all  this  con- 
fusion and  crowding  there  is  danger  to  the  Library  collections, 
slow  and  inadequate  service  to  the  public,  loss  of  time  and  oppor- 
tunity to  the  student,  and  greatly  increased  cost  of  administration. 
There  is  no  opportunity  to  display  the  resources  of  the  Library 
and  it  is  thus  deprived  of  the  most  natural  means  of  promoting  its 
use  and  encouraging  its  support.  These  conditions  being  widely 
known  the  flow  of  valuable  gifts  to  the  Library  is  checked,  and  one 
of  its  greatest  sources  of  enrichment  seriously  impaired. 

The  main  entrance  to  the  Library  leads  directly  into  the  reference 
room,  which  should  be  a  place  for  quiet  study.  The  conversation 
of  guides  and  visitors,  the  rattling  of  elevator  doors  and  the  tramp- 
ing of  feet  on  the  tile  floors  make  quiet  impossible.  There  should 
be  a  much  larger  collection  of  reference  books  on  open  shelves  in 
this  room,  but  lack  of  shelf  room  makes  this  also  impossible. 

From  an  administrative  point  of  view,  the  New  York  State 
Library  is  an  expensive  aggregation  of  temporary  expedients. 

Founded  in  181 8,  the  Library  began  its  career  with  656  volumes. 
The  collection  is  now  sixteen  times  as  large  as  it  was  in  1850,  and 
has  doubled  in  size  in  the  last  twelve  years.  The  card  catalog  and 
most  important  indexes  now  contain  a  million  and  a  half  cards.  The 
annual  increase  is  from  20,000  to  30,000  volumes ;  30,000  to  40,000 
pamphlets ;  7000  pictures,  and  80,000  to  100,000  cards.  A  mile  of 
linear  shelving  is  needed  for  the  additions  each  year.  This  start- 
ling statement  will  be  found  sufficiently  conservative   when  it  is 


i8o 

considered  that  art  books,  bound  newspapers,  books  for  the  blind, 
etc.,  often  occupy  the  space  of  eight  or  ten  ordinary  octavo  volumes. 
Considering  its  present  needs  and  those  of  only  the  next  ten  or 
fifteen  years,  the  Library  should  have,  besides  administrative  rooms 
and  adequate  quarters  for  its  manuscript  collections,  etc.,  capacity 
for  1,000,000  volumes.  The  new  building,  moreover,  should  be  so 
constructed  that  this  capacity  could  be  doubled  after  the  lapse  of 
about  fifteen  years,  without  altering  or  spoiling  the  general  scheme. 

MENACE  TO  THE    CAPITOL 

The  immense  amount  of  wooden  shelving,  wooden  galleries,  docu- 
ments, books  and  other  inflammable  material  occupying  the  whole 
west  side  of  the  Capitol  is  a  constant  menace  from  fire,  which  if 
once  started  in  these  shafts  and  galleries  would  totally  destroy  a 
structure  which  has  cost  twenty-five  million  dollars. 

Scarcely  less  urgent  than  the  needs  of  the  State  Library  are 
those  of  the  State  Museum  and  the  scientific  departments  of  the 
State. 

NEW   YORK   STATE   MUSEUM 

The  scientific  collections  of  the  State  are  priceless.  They  are 
the  acquisitions  of  seventy  years  of  official  activity  in  New  York 
State  science,  but  under  the  conditions  which  now  prevail  and  have 
existed  for  the  past  fifteen  years  the  interested  public  is  practically 
debarred  of  access  to  them.  It  is  for  the  education  of  the  New 
York  public  that  these  collections  have  been  brought  together  and 
the  existing  situation  deprives  the  people  of  a  distinct  educational 
right  and  advantage.  Such  collections  can  not  remain  stationary 
in  volume.  The  influx  of  materials  necessary  to  the  progress  of  all 
branches  of  the  scientific  work,  yearly  and  almost  daily  aggravates 
the  problem  of  the  disposition  of  these  collections.  Contrasted  with 
the  provision  made  by  governments,  states  and  municipalities  else- 
where for  the  care  of  such  public  scientific  collections,  the  present 
housing  of  this  scientific  property  is  not  a  credit  to  the  people  or 
the  State  of  New  York. 

The  annual  increase  in  these  collections  is  from  25,000  to  30,000 
specimens.  Instead  of  there  being  an  increase  of  space  for  the 
accommodation  of  these  additions,  there  has  been  during  nearly 
twenty  years  a  gradual  diminution  in  the  space  available  for  their 
disposition. 

Fifty-one  years  ago  the  Geological  Hall  on  State  street  was  set 
aside  for  the  reception  of  these  collections  and  it  was  within  a 
few  years  filled  with  well  displayed  collections  occupying  four 
floors  and  basement  with  the  exception  of  three  chambers  set  aside 
for  the  use  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture.  In  1882  the  Legis- 
lature recognized  the  fact  that  these  quarters  had  become  over- 
crowded and  insufficient  for  the  displav  of  the  natural  resources 
of  the  State  and  by  statute  the  authorities  of  the  State  Museum 
were  ordered  to  acquire  rooms  in  the  State  Hall  as  it  was  assumed 
that  those  rooms  would  be  vacated  by  the  removal  of  the  financial 


181 


offices  to  the  Capitol.  By  1886  the  Museum  had  occupied  three 
rooms  in  the  basement,  three  rooms  on  the  second  floor  formerly 
occupied  by  the  Attorney  General,  the  Canal  Board  and  the  Com- 
missioners of  the  Land  Office,  and  five  rooms  on  the  third  floor. 

However,  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  public  business  which  have 
arisen  during  the  last  twenty  years,  these  quarters  have  been  again 
and  again  contracted  in  spite  of  the  progress  of  scientific  work. 
For  ten  years  it  has  been  necessary  to  recognize  the  fact  that  the 
Museum  could  not  even  keep  its  ancient  hold  upon  the  space 
formerly  assigned  to  the  scientific  collections.  Repeatedly  to  meet 
the  demands  of  public  business  it  has  withdrawn  from  one  room 
after  another  in  the  State  Hall  until  at  the  present  time  it  has  left 
in  that  building  only  one  basement  room  equipped  with  the  ma- 
chinery and  mechanical  appliances  of  the  Museum,  and  three  rooms 
on  the  top  floor  used  as  offices. 

Until  the  present  year,  however,  it  has  been  possible  to  protect 
the  collection  rooms  in  the  Geological  Hall  from  encroachment, 
except  so  far  as  they  have  been  in  part  required  for  our  own  offices ; 
but  within  the  past  three  months  it  has  been  necessary  to  meet  the 
irresistible  demands  for  more  office  room  by  surrendering  to  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  several  thousand  square  feet  of  floor 
space  in  the  Geological  Hall,  and,  in  so  doing,  compelled  to  displace 
and  pack,  away  out  of  sight  some  of  the  most  attractive  and  in- 
structive parts  of  the  Museum  collections. 

The  scientific  collections  are  today  scattered  through  various 
buildings,  and  their  distribution  may  be  briefly  summarized  as 
follows : 

(a)  Geological  Hall.  Here  are  the  offices  of  the  State  Botanist 
with  the  herbarium;  of  the  State  Entomologist  with  the  collections 
of  insects ;  of  the  Assistant  State  Geologist ;  the  Mineralogist,  and 
the  Zoologist.  These  office  quarters  have  unavoidably  displaced 
some  considerable  part  of  the  display  collections,  as  the  first  two 
officials  named  were  formerly  located  in  the  Capitol  and  the  other 
offices,  so  far  as  they  existed  at  all,  were  upon  the  first  floor.  Until 
within  a  few  weeks  the  Museum  occupied  22,000  square  feet  of 
floor  space  in  this  building,  absurdly  inadequate  for  both  the  offices 
and  the  collections  of  the  department.  This  space  has  recently  been 
taken  away  to  make  room  for  the  Agricultural  Department  that  its 
removal  from  the  Capitol  might  make  room  for  the  Gas  Commis- 
sion. In  the  basement  and  cellar  are  stored  the  collections  which 
have  won  grand  prizes  and  gold  medals  at  the  recent  expositions  at 
Buffalo  and  St  Louis  and  also  the  entire  collection  of  minerals. 

(b)  State  Hall.  The  offices  of  the  Director,  Geologist  and 
Paleontologist  and  his  staff  are  in  this  building,  which  also  contains 
the  most  valuable  part  of  the  paleontologic  collections  of  the 
Museum.  These  are  stored  in  several  thousand  drawers  and  boxes. 
In  the  basement  is  the  rock-cutting  plant  and  the  machine  shop. 
Within  the  past  three  years  three  of  the  rooms  formerly  occupied 
have  been  surrendered  to  the  Corporation  Tax  Bureau  and  one  base- 
ment room  to  the  State  Engineer. 


I&2 

(c)  Capitol.  The  corridors  on  the  fourth  floor  at  the  western' 
end  and  the  landing  of  the  western  stairway  contain  series  of  cases 
filled  with  such  parts  of  the  Indian  collections  as  can  now  be  dis- 
played. Additional  specimens  pertaining  to  this  collection  are  in 
the  State  Library  and  many  others  are  packed  away  in  the  hope  of 
future  opportunities  for  exhibition. 

(d)  Storage  House  (McCredie  Malthouse).  In  this  building 
there  are  stored  many  hundreds  of  boxes  and  cases  of  scientific  speci- 
mens of  various  kinds,  some  of  which  have  not  been  opened  in 
half  a  century;  others  containing  the  materials  recently  acquired, 
which,  after  being  studied,  have  had  to  be  put  away. 

(e)  Flint  Granite  Company,  Cemetery  station.  Here  are  stored 
some  very  large  slabs  of  fossils  having  a  total  weight  of  upward  of 
twenty-five  tons. 

These  collections,  now  scattered  through  five  buildings,  are  in 
very  large  measure  of  such  quality  that  they  can  not  be  duplicated. 
They  are  in  no  small  part  unequaled.  The  New  York  State 
Museum  is  one  of  the  oldest  public  scientific  museums  in  America 
and  it  has  the  largest  scientific  collection  belonging  to  any  State 
in  the  Union.  This  historic  record  has  given  it  a  high  repute 
throughout  the  world,  but  its  invaluable  scientific  property  must  fail 
to  serve  the  people  and  public  education  so  long  as  it  remains  in  its 
present  deplorable  condition.  The  financial  value  of  these  collec- 
tions and  their  worth  to  New  York  science  are  too  great  to  excuse 
the  existing  situation. 

INSUFFICIENT  WORK  ROOM  FOR  DEPARTMENT  FORCE 

The  working  force  of  the  Education  Department  is  so  widely 
scattered  -as  to  seriously  interfere  with  department  unity,  discipline 
and  efficiency.  But  that  is  not  the  worst  of  it.  Many  rooms  are 
occupied  and  overcrowded  which  were  not  originally  intended  to  be 
occupied  as  working  rooms  at  all,  and  are  without  suitable  light, 
heat,  ventilation  or  toilet  accommodations,  and  which  in  several 
cases  can  not  be  said  to  be  secure  against  accident  or  fire.  For 
example,  the  Examinations  Division,  with  65  employees,  occupies 
a  room  on  the  sixth  floor  in  the  northeast  tower  of  the  Capitol.  It 
is  reached  only  by  the  Senate  elevators,  on  the  south  side.  There 
are  no  stairways.  It  is  wholly  unadapted  by  reason  of  insufficient 
light,  heat,  ventilation,  storage  accommodations,  toilet  conveniences 
and  means  of  exit  for  so  many  persons  engaged  in  such  high  grade 
work.  It  is  over  the  Assembly  staircase,  about  the  security  of 
which  so  much  is  being  said.  The  same  conditions  prevail  essen- 
tially concerning  a  room  in  the  southwest  tower,  sixth  floor,  except 
that  this  room  can  be  reached  only  by  a  private  elevator.  It  is  not 
deemed  necessary  to  go  further  as  to  details,  but  it  is  wholly  within 
the  fact  to  say  that  very  many  circumstances  concerning  the  insuffi- 
cient spaces  at  the  service  of  the  Department  demand  the  attention 


i»3 

of  the  Legislature  in  the  interest  of  the  safety  and  the  ordinary 
comfort  of  employees,  as  well  as  in  the  interest  of  efficient  and 
economical  administration. 

THE  REMEDY 

The  only  means  of  relief  is  through  a  separate  building  near  the 
Capitol.  If  this  should  be  provided,  it  would  seem  that  true  wisdom 
would  make  it  large  enough  to  accommodate  all  of  the  interests  in 
charge  of  the  Education  Department.  It  should  reasonably  antici- 
pate the  growth  of  the  next  fifteen  or  twenty  years  and  be  so 
planned  as  to  permit  of  an  extension  of  the  State  Library  stacks  at 
any  future  time.  This  would  release  the  spaces  occupied  by  the 
Education  Department  in  the  Capitol,  the  old  State  House  and  in 
the  Geological  and  Agricultural  Hall  for  other  official  interests  in 
the  State  government. 

It  would  seem  that  the  reasons  are  sufficient  for  devoting  such  a 
building  to  the  exclusive  use  of  the  Education  Department.  The 
routine  of  the  Department  and  the  interests  for  which  it  stands  not 
only  claim  a  large  building  but  one  which  stands  distinctly  for  the 
intellectual  activities  and  the  scientific  purposes  as  distinguished 
from  the  political  contentions  and  the  commercial  turmoil  of  the 
State.  It  should  not  only  provide  for  the  convenience  of  educational 
administration,  but  it  should  also  generate  intellectual  energy ;  in 
plan,  proportion,  and  architectural  character  and  ornamentation, 
it  should  impress  the  popular  mind  with  the  important  place  which 
education  holds  in  the  thought  and  policies  of  the  Empire  State. 

PROPOSED  BILL 

Coming  to  the  consideration  of  a  bill  which  will  meet  the  needs 
of  the  situation  while  it  protects  the  interests  of  the  State,  the  com- 
mittee has  had  the  following  ends  in  view:  (a)  The  new  building 
must  be  architecturally  pleasing;  (b)  It  must  have  much  well- 
lighted  space  for  exacting  work  and  secure  accommodations  for 
collections  so  arranged  as  to  permit  of  enlargement  for  the  Library 
and  Museum  without  disturbing  the  other  parts  of  the  building; 
(c)  The  State  should  know  what  the  finished  building  is  to  cost 
before  it  is  commenced,  and  the  cost  should  be  within  a  reasonable 
limit,  which  the  committee  has  fixed  at  $3,500,000,  exclusive  of  the 
site;  and  (d)  The  length  of  time  required  for  construction  should 
also  be  known  in  advance,  to  the  end  that  provision  for  meeting  the 
expense  may  be  systematically  made. 

Having  these  points  in  mind,  the  committee  has  amended  the  bill 
of  Senator  Raines  to  read  as  attached  hereto,  and  recommends  its 
passage. 

Very  respectfully  submitted 

George  R.  Maley 

Chairman 


1 84 

AN  ACT 

Providing  for  the  acquisition  of  a  site  and  for  the  erection  of  a 
State  Education  Building,  providing  for  the  State  Library,  State 
Museum,  and  making  an  appropriation  therefor. 

The  People  of  the  State  of  New  York,  represented  in  Senate  and 
Assembly,  do  enact  as  follows: 

Section  I  The  Trustees  of  Public  Buildings  are  hereby  em- 
powered to  determine  upon  a  suitable  site  near  the  Capitol  for  a 
building  for  the  use  of  the  State  Education  Department,  including 
the  State  Library,  the  State  Museum  of  Natural  History,  and  to 
acquire  the  same  either  by  condemnation  under  the  power  of 
eminent  domain  through  proceedings  instituted  by  the  Attorney 
General,  or  by  negotiation  and  agreement  with  the  present  owner 
or  owners  as  to  the  just  value  thereof,  and  also  to  proceed  to  the 
erection  of  a  suitable  building  thereon  for  the  purposes  provided 
herein. 

§  2  The  State  Architect  under  the  direction  of  the  Trustees  of 
Public  Buildings,  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Regents  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  the  State  of  New  York  to  be  selected  by  the  Board  and  the 
Commissioner  of  Education,  shall  prepare  floor  plans  of  the  build- 
ing showing  in  a  general  way  the  present  requirements  of  the 
various  departments  to  be  housed  therein  and  so  designed  as  to 
permit  of  future  additions  thereto  and  providing  accommodations 
for  the  officers  and  employees  of  the  Education  Department  with 
suitable  accommodations  for  the  safe  and  proper  care  of  the  col- 
lections of  every  description  belonging  to  the  State  Library  and  the 
State  Museum,  suitable  rooms  for  the  Board  of  Regents  as  well  as 
for  an  assembly  hall. 

§  3  When  such  plans  as  provided  for  in  section  2  shall  have 
been  prepared,  the  Trustees  of  Public  Buildings  shall  give  notice  by 
advertisement  in  at  least  two  and  not  more  than  five  daily  news- 
papers published  in  the  State  that  the  furnishing  of  designs,  plans 
and  specifications  for  the  construction  of  such  building,  which  shall 
be  of  modern  fireproof  construction  and  not  to  cost  in  the  aggregate 
more  than  three  million,  five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  intended 
to  meet  the  requirements  as  indicated  in  section  2,  is  open  to 
public  competition.  Said  trustees  shall  make  such  rules  and  regula- 
tions governing  such  competition  as  in  their  judgment  are  necessary. 

§  4  The  Trustees  of  Public  Buildings,  the  designated  member  of 
the  Board  of  Regents  of  the  University  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
the  Commissioner  of  Education  and  the  State  Architect  shall  con- 
stitute a  board  to  which  all  plans  shall  be  submitted.  No  plan  shall 
bear  the  name  or  any  distinguishing  mark  of  the  architect  but  shall 
be  accompanied  with  a  sealed  envelop  containing  the  name  and  post 
office  address  of  the  architect.  Plain  and  sealed  envelops  so  received 
shall  be  numbered  in  duplicate  and  in  the  numerical  order  in  which 
they  are  received.  The  said  board  shall  examine  all  plans  sub- 
mitted to  them  and  shall  select  therefrom  their  first,  second  and 


i»5 

third  choice  and  so  designate  by  number.  When  such  selection  is 
made  the  envelop  number  corresponding  to  the  number  of  the 
plans  shall  be  opened  and  the  board  shall  notify  the  designer  that  he 
has  been  awarded  first,  second  or  third  place  as  the  case  might  be. 
The  plans  so  selected  shall  be  the  absolute  property  of  the  State. 

§  5  When  such  plans  and  specifications  have  been  made  and 
approved  as  herein  provided,  the  Trustees  of  Public  Buildings  shall 
advertise  in  not  less  than  five  nor  more  than  ten  daily  newspapers 
of  the  State  for  tenders  from  contractors  and  builders  setting  forth 
the  terms  upon  which  they  will  undertake  the  erection  of  said  build- 
ing according  to  said  plans  and  specifications.  Said  tenders  shall  be 
accompanied  by  such  guaranty  bond  or  cash  deposit  as  shall  be 
required  by  said  Trustees  of  Public  Buildings  and  shall  satisfy  said 
trustees-  that  the  person,  firm,  or  corporation  proposing  to  erect  the 
whole  or  some  part  of  said  building  will  enter  into  contract  and 
complete  the  work  proposed  to  be  done  according  to  the  terms  of 
the  propositions  presented.  Said  trustees  may,  in  their  discretion, 
call  for  tenders  upon  the  erection  of  the  whole  of  said  building  by 
one  contracting  party,  or  for  the  performance  of  different  parts  of 
the  work  by  different  parties. 

§  6  The  said  Trustees  of  Public  Buildings  shall,  on  or  before 
January  15,  1907,  transmit  to  the  Legislature  all  plans,  specifica- 
tions and  bids  for  the  construction  of  said  building  together  with 
such  recommendations  in  the  premises  as  they  see  fit  to  make  in 
relation  to  the  construction  of  said  building. 

§  7  The  sum  of  four  hundred  thousand  dollars  is  hereby  appro- 
priated out  of  any  moneys  in  the  treasury  not  otherwise  appro- 
priated, for  the  purchase  of  the  site  for  said  Education  Building 
and  for  any  expenses  incidental  thereto  and  also  for  the  awards  to 
be  made  by  said  board  under  the  provisions  of  section  4,  which 
amount  shall  not  exceed  in  the  aggregate  twenty  thousand  dollars, 
or  for  any  other  expenses  approved  by  the  Governor.  The  money 
shall  be  paid  by  the  Treasurer  upon  the  warrant  of  the  Comptroller 
upon  the  certificate  of  approval  by  the  Governor. 

§  8  This  act  shall  take  effect  immediately. 

There  was  delay  in  the  Assembly.  No  real  opposition  was 
presented;  all  claimed  to  be  for  it;  but  it  did  not  move  forward. 
Time  passed  until  it  was  the  day  before  final  adjournment  and 
still  it  rested  in  the  rules  committee  and  would  not  budge. 
Speaker  Wadsworth  and  other  leaders  in  the  house  favored  it 
cordially,  and  the  fact  that  it  showed  no  life  seemed  as  surpris- 
ing as  it  was  ominous.  An  earnest  appeal  to  the  Speaker  finally 
unearthed  the  important  fact  that  there  was  an  understanding 
between  the  Governor  and  the  Speaker  that  no  extraordinary 
appropriations  should  be  passed  in  the  Assembly  unless  the  Gov- 
ernor signified  his  approval,  and  that  approval  had  been  withheld 


1 86 

in  the  case  of  this  bill.  The  Commissioner  of  Education  asked 
for  an  audience  with  the  Governor,  and  received  word  that  he 
was  so  occupied  that  it  would  not  be  possible  that  day.  But  it 
was  that  day  or  never.  The  Commissioner  returned  the  answer 
that  he  wished  to  see  the  Governor  about  the  Education  Building 
bill ;  that  it  would  be  no  use  to  see  him  later ;  that  if  the  Governor 
would  hear  him  it  would  be  appreciated;  and  that  if  he  refused, 
it  would  be  resented.  The  Governor  then  invited  the  interview 
at  once.  The  Commissioner  opened  it  by  an  expression  of  sur- 
prise that  the  Governor,  after  all  that  had  been  said,  was  ob- 
structing the  passage  of  the  Education  Building  bill ;  the  Gover- 
nor said  he  was  not  running  the  Legislature;  the  Commissioner 
answered  that  he  was  stopping  it  from  running  so  far  as  that 
bill  was  concerned.  The  Governor  said  that  he  could  not  assent 
to  that,  but  was  told  that  the  information  was  direct  and  con- 
vincing. He  said  "  Commissioner,  your  Department  ought  to 
have  that  building,  but  it  can  not  be  had  without  scandal,  or  at 
least  without  criticism  that  will  besmirch  my  administration,  and  I 
would  like  to  have  the  people  of  the  State  believe  that  this  admini- 
stration is  an  honest  one."  It  revealed  the  man  admirably.  It  was 
not  only  excusable ;  it  was  creditable  to  him.  He  was  even  then 
far  from  well.  He  died  the  following  winter,  three  weeks  after 
the  inauguration  of  his  successor,  and  after  risking  too  much  to 
do  his  part  in  the  inaugural  ceremonies.  He  had  integrity  that 
was  never  questioned,  was  wholly  familiar  with  the  business  of 
the  State,  and  too  jealous  of  the  honor  of  his  administration 
freely  to  take  initiatory  steps  which  circumstances  often  made 
advisable  if  not  necessary.  The  answer  had  to  be  made  firmly. 
It  was  this :  "  Governor  Higgins,  this  bill  is  right.  That  build- 
ing is  imperatively  necessary.  The  people  of  New  York  have 
a  confidence  in  your  integrity  and  business  experience  which  will 
make  them  more  disposed  to  have  this  thing  managed  by  you 
than  you  imagine.  It  is  absurd  to  say  that  New  York  can  not 
do  without  a  scandal  what  she  needs  to  do,  for  that  admits  the 
breakdown  of  democratic  government.  Our  experiences  with 
the  Capitol  should  qualify  us  for  doing  such  a  thing  as  this  much 
better  than  we  otherwise  would.  In  any  event,  it  must  be  said 
that  if  you  were  to  veto  this  bill  as  a  public  duty  after  you  had 
had  it  under  consideration  for  thirty  days  and  had  heard  all  that 
was  to  be  said  tor  or  against  it,  all  of  us  would  have  to  accept 
your  veto  in  good  spirit ;  but  if  you  knife  it  in  the  back  and  in  the 


i87 

dark  you  will  arouse  a  bitter  resentment  of  which  you  will  never 
hear  the  last."  He  said  "  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  action 
of  the  Legislature  and  will  neither  help  nor  hinder  this  bill  in 
the  Assembly."  "May  I  carry  that  from  you  to  the  Speaker?" 
the  Commissioner  asked.  "  Yes,"  he  replied,  "  say  to  the 
Speaker  that  in  spite  of  all  conversations  I  wish  the  Assembly 
to  act  without  any  reference  to  me  concerning  the  Education 
Building."  The  committee  on  rules  very  soon  placed  the  bill 
on  the  calendar  for  the  next  and  last  day,  and  it  passed,  with  but 
two  opposing  votes,  after  the  clock  had  been  turned  back  so  as 
not  to  strike  the  hour  of  adjournment.  The  letters  and  press 
notices  which  the  Governor  received  in  the  next  thirty  days 
made  it  easy  for  him  to  sign  the  bill,  and  he  made  it  a  law  on 
Friday,  June  I,  1906. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Regents  on  June  28th,  Dr  Albert  Vander 
Veer  was  designated  as  the  Regent  who  should  be  a  member  of 
the  Board  of  Award. 

It  was  the  plan  of  the  act  providing  for  the  building  —  an 
arrangement  proposed  by  the  Education  Department  —  that  all 
business  and  financial  phases  of  the  project  should  be  executed 
by  the  Trustees  of  Public  Buildings,  but  that  the  Department 
should  have  much  to  say  about  the  architectural  plans  and  the 
interior  arrangements  of  the  structure.  This  seemed  satisfactory 
to  all;  the  Legislature  would  not  be  content  to  hand  business 
matters  over  to  "  educators  "  but  was  entirely  reconciled  to  let 
the  "  educators  "  work  over  plans  and  details,  and  the  "  edu- 
cators "  were  quite  content  to  avoid  responsibility  about  con- 
tracts and  very  willing  to  work  over  architectural  plans  in  hope 
of  having  what  was  wanted  when  the  work  was  done.  So  the 
Trustees  of  Public  Buildings,  consisting  of  the  Governor,  the 
Lieutenant  Governor,  and  the  Speaker  of  the  Assembly,  were 
charged  with  the  determination  and  acquisition  of  the  site  and 
the  making  of  contracts  for  the  erection  of  the  building.  The 
State  Architect,  a  Regent  of  the  University  (Dr  Vander  Veer) 
and  the  Commissioner  of  Education  were  required  to  prepare 
floor  plans  for  a  structure  "  showing  in  a  general  way  the  pres- 
ent requirements  of  the  various  departments  to  be  housed  therein 
and  so  designed  as  to  permit  of  future  additions  thereto  and  pro- 
viding accommodations  for  the  officers  and  employees  of  the 
Education  Department  with  suitable  accommodations  for  the 
safe  and  proper  care  of  the  collections  of  every  description  be- 


i88 

longing  to  the  State  Library  and  the  State  Museum,  suitable 
rooms  for  the  Board  of  Regents,  as  well  as  for  an  assembly  hall." 
Upon  this  basis  the  trustees  were  to  announce  the  terms  of  an 
architectural  competition,  the  essential  features  of  which  had 
been  particularly  specified  in  the  act,  and  the  six  officers,  to  be 
known  as  the  Board  of  Award,  were  to  determine  upon  the 
designs  and  specifications  which  were  first,  second,  and  third  in 
the  order  of  merit  and  which  should  become  the  property  of  the 
State.  Then  upon  the  basis  of  the  designs  of  first  merit,  but  using 
any  desirable  features  in  the  others  which  had  become  the  property 
of  the  State,  the  Trustees  of  Public  Buildings  should  advertise  for 
tenders,  let  contracts,  and  look  after  their  proper  execution. 

There  was  no  disagreement  over  the  site.  All  sites  north, 
west,  and  south  of  the  Capitol  were  considered.  The  valuations 
of  each  of  the  neighboring  blocks  for  taxing  purposes  were  ob- 
tained and  the  proportions  and  shape  of  a  building  upon  each 
were  discussed.  There  was  much  uncertainty  for  a  time.  The 
two  blocks  bounded  by  Washington  avenue,  Hawk  and  Elk 
streets  and  Park  place  were  looked  upon  very  seriously.  Taking 
that  site  would  have  involved  the  building  of  the  Albany  Acad- 
emy to  some  extent  at  least,  and  this  fact  caused  violent  protests 
from  many  graduates  to  the  one  of  their  number  who  was  the 
Commissioner  of  Education.  At  this  juncture  Mr  Cutler,  an 
architect,  came  into  the  Commissioner's  office,  and  with  pencil 
suggested  a  very  rough  outline  of  the  front  of  a  long  building 
which  might  be  placed  upon  the  block  bounded  by  Washington 
avenue,  Swan,  Hawk  and  Elk  streets,  with  so  much  effect  that 
he  was  asked  to  amplify  it  and  did  so.  These  rough  pencilings 
made  a  rather  deep  impression  and  are  yet  preserved.  This 
site  was  taken  and,  although  it  has  been  much  criticized,  it  is 
beyond  doubt  the  most  desirable  site  adjacent  to  the  Capitol. 
The  considerations  which  soon  led  all  the  members  of  the  Board 
to  favor  it  are  the  extent  of  ground  space,  the  long  front  afford- 
ing opportunity  for  such  magnificent  architectural  treatment  as 
it  has  since  received,  the  fact  that  every  room  would  be  an  out- 
side room  with  ample  light  and  air  without  recourse  to  interior 
shafts  or  courts,  additional  ground  for  future  extension  which 
already  belonged  to  the  State,  and  in  time,  with  the  necessary 
clearing  of  the  ground  in  front  of  it,  would  make  possible  the 
best  architectural  and  landscape  effects. 


189 

This  site  has  a  frontage  of  659.6  feet,  and  a  depth  on  Swan 
and  Hawk  streets  of  140  feet,  with  an  adjoining  parcel  of  land  in 
the  rear  165.87  by  190  feet  between  the  Cathedral  of  All  Saints 
and  the  present  Capitol  boiler  house.  It  was  assumed  that  the 
boiler  house  would  be  removed  and,  as  the  State  is  erecting 
another  across  the  ravine,  that  seems  assured.  Upon  this  site 
of  approximately  141,110  square  feet  there  were  50  brick  build- 
ings, 10  wooden  structures,  and  4  vacant  parcels  of  land.  The 
valuations  for  taxing  purposes  were  $297,500.  As  soon  as  the 
site  was  decided  upon  the  owners  naturally  enough  began  to 
think  that  their  property  was  far  more  valuable  when  it  came 
to  selling  to  the  State  than  it  was  as  a  basis  for  taxation.  Gov- 
ernor Higgins  asked  the  Commissioner  of  Education  to  negotiate 
with  the  owners  and  see  if  the  State  could  not  secure  some  of  the 
64  properties  by  agreement,  and  that  was  done  as  to  nearly  half 
of  them  by  paying  an  advance  of  25  per  cent  over  the  assessable 
valuation.  The  others  were  taken  by  condemnation.  The  total 
cost  of  the  site  was  $466,440.75. 

The  terms  of  the  competition  for  architectural  designs  were 
announced'  by  the  Board  of  Award  August  30,  1906.  It  set 
forth  in  detail  the  spaces  and  accommodations  that  would  be 
required  and  specified  the  sketches  and  drawings  that  must  be 
furnished.  Every  precaution  was  taken  to  secure  anonymity 
in  the  competition.  All  architects  were  admitted  to  the  first 
competition,  and  out  of  all  the  designs  submitted  the  ten  having 
the  most  promise  were  selected  and  their  authors  were  each  paid 
$500.  The  architects  presenting  the  ten  most  meritorious  de- 
signs were  determined  to  be  as  follows : 

Allen  &  Collens,  6  Beacon  street,  Boston,  Mass. 
Martin  C.  Miller  &  Walter  P.  R.  Pember,  Mutual  Life  Build- 
ing, Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

Pell  &  Corbett,  31  Union  Square,  New  York  City 
George  Cary,  184  Delaware  avenue,  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 
Palmer  &  Hornbostel,  63  William  street,  New  York  City 
Wells  &  Hathaway,  11 18  Tremont  Building,  Boston,  Mass. 
Hedman  &  Schoen  and   Goodwin  &  Jacoby,  302   Broadway, 
New  York  City 

J.  H.  Freedlander,  244  Fifth  avenue,  New  York  City 
Howells  &  Stokes,  100  William  street,  New  York  City 
P.  Thornton  Marye  and  Frederic  W.   Brown  &  A.   Ten  Eyck 
Brown,  Equitable  Building,  Atlanta,  Ga. 


190 

The  authors  of  the  ten  best  designs  were  then  paid  $1000  each 
for  participating  in  a  second  competition.  They  were  advised 
as  to  further  details  and  were  invited  to  Albany  to  offer  sugges- 
tions as  to  the  plans  for  the  final  competition.  At  the  end  of 
the  final  competition  the  three  designs  held  to  have  most  merit 
were  chosen.  The  authors  of  the  design  held  to  be  third  in  the 
order  of  merit,  which  we  will  call  the  No.  3  design,  were  Messrs 
Miller  &  Pember  of  Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  and  they  were  paid  an  extra 
$1000.  The  authors  of  the  No.  2  design  were  Messrs  Howells 
&  Stokes  of  New  York  City,  and  they  were  paid  an  extra  $2000. 
The  authors  of  the  No.  1  design  were  Messrs.  Palmer  &  Horn- 
bostel,  63  William  street,  New  York  City,  and  they  were  given 
the  commission  for  executing  the  building.  From  the  beginning 
to  the  end  of  the  delicate  and  complicated  procedure  there  was 
no  complaint  made  to  the  Board  of  Award  by  any  of  the  parties 
interested. 

Sixty-three  designs  were  submitted  in  the  first  competition. 
Governor  Higgins's  health  was  steadily  declining  and  he  con- 
tinually left  it  to  others  to  look  after  details  and  in  very  large 
measure  to  look  after  the  proceedings  in  general,  but  he  sat 
with  the  Board  and  participated  in  the  elimination  of  fifty-three 
designs.  Nor  was  there  much  difficulty  in  selecting  the  best 
three  in  the  ten  in  the  final  competition,  but  there  was  a  rub  when 
it  came  to  deciding  between  the  best  two. 

The  prospectus  for  the  second  competition  was  issued  January 
10,  1907.  Hon.  Charles  Evans  Hughes  became  Governor  January 
1,  1907,  and  the  Board  had  the  benefit  of  his  extended  travel,  keen 
purpose  to  secure  the  best  advantage  for  the  State,  and  incisive 
ways  of  doing  things,  while  it  was  slowly  working  its  way  to 
a  conclusion  as  to  the  most  desirable  architectural  design. 

The  Board  of  Award  consisted  in  the  first  instance  of  the  late 
Hon.  Frank  W.  Higgins,  Governor,  and  Hon.  M.  Linn  Bruce, 
Lieutenant  Governor,  who  served  until  the  completion  of  their 
terms  of  office;  Hon.  James  W.  Wadsworth,  jr,  Speaker  of  the 
Assembly;  Dr  Andrew  S.  Draper,  Commissioner  of  Education; 
the  late  Hon.  George  L.  Heins,  State  Architect,  who  served  until 
his  death  on  September  25,  1907;  and  Dr  Albert  Vander  Veer, 
Regent,  who  was  designated  by  the  Board  of  Regents  in  accord- 
ance with  the  statute.  Hon.  Charles  E.  Hughes,  Governor,  and 
Hon.  Lewis  S.  Chanler,  Lieutenant  Governor,  served  after  taking 
office  on  January  1,  1907.    Hon.  Franklin  B.  Ware,  State  Archi- 


191 

tect,  served  after  his  appointment  on  October  15,  1907.  The 
Speaker  of  the  Assembly,  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  and 
Regent  Vander  Veer  served  continuously. 

Chapter  578,  Laws  of  1907,  the  annual  supply  bill,  made  the 
first  actual  appropriation  for  the  construction  of  the  building  as 
follows : 

For  beginning  the  construction  of  the  new  State  Education  Build- 
ing pursuant  to  chapter  678,  Laws  of  1906,  one  million  five  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  payable  on  the  certificate  of  the  Governor,  of 
which  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  shall  be  available  immediately, 
four  hundred  thousand  dollars  on  October  1,  1907,  and  the  remain- 
der on  March  1,  1908,  and  from  which  may  also  be  paid  any  defi- 
ciency in  the  appropriation  made  by  said  chapter  for  acquiring  the 
site  for  the  building  and  the  expenses  incidental  thereto.  The 
Trustees  of  Public  Buildings  are  hereby  authorized  to  enter  into 
contract  for  the  erection  and  completion  of  said  building,  upon 
terms  believed  by  said  trustees  to  be  most  advantageous  to  the  State 
at  a  total  cost  of  not  more  than  three  million  five  hundred  thousand 
dollars  for  the  building  exclusive  of  the  site  therefor. 

The  real  contest  was  between  the  classical  design  upon  which 
the  building  has  been  executed  and  one  which  could  hardly  be 
said  to  represent  any  established  type  of  architecture  but  pre- 
sented what  promised  to  be  an  exceedingly  handsome  building 
for  some  purposes  and  which  had  the  advantage  of  being  repre- 
sented in  an  exceedingly  attractive  picture.  The  State  Architect, 
Mr  George  L.  Heines,  supported  this  No.  2  design.  The  smoke 
of  a  contest  with  the  Commissioner  of  Education  over  the  archi- 
tectural designs  of  the  State  Normal  College  buildings  which  had 
but  recently  been  settled  had  not  yet  cleared.  The  Speaker  sus- 
tained the  Architect's  views.  Regent  Vander  Veer  and  the  Com- 
missioner of  Education  early  espoused  the  classical  building. 
Lieutenant  Governor  Chanler  refrained  from  committing  himself 
for  a  while  but  in  time  declared  for  the  classical  building.  That 
made  three  for  it  out  of  six,  not  enough  to  select  it  but  apparently 
enough  to  prevent  the  selection  of  any  other.  That  it  was  enough 
to  prevent  the  selection  of  any  other  design  was  not  as  absolutely 
certain,  however,  as  the  simple  mathematics  might  lead  one  to 
think,  for  the  Governor  had  personnel  and  powers  that  could 
pretty  nearly  defy  either  simple  or  complex  mathematics.  Several 
meetings  were  held  and  the  two  pictures  gazed  at  and  discussed. 
The  Governor  was  cheerful,  but  reticent  upon  the  real  issue. 
Once  he  asked  the  Commissioner  of  Education  why  he  did  not 


192 

like  the  No.  2  picture :  the  latter  was  obliged  to  admit  that  it 
made  a  pretty  picture  and  that  the  design  might  do  for  some 
purposes  and  in  some  places.  In  Hughes  fashion  the  Governor 
said  "  Glad  you  admit  so  much :  for  what  purpose  and  what  place 
would  it  do?  "  It  was  a  hard  question  but  the  answer  was  "  Well, 
Governor,  it  is  residential  architecture  and  it  needs  a  tropical 
environment:.  When  Hawaii  becomes  separated  from  the  United 
States  and  Liliuokalani  regains  her  throne  it  might  do  for  a  palace 
for  her  at  Honolulu."  The  Governor  enjoyed  the  banter  and  after- 
ward referred  to  the  second  design  as  the  "  Honolulu  Building." 
It  may  possibly  have  weighed  as  much  as  a  feather  upon  his  final 
decision. 

Nothing  was  done  for  six  weeks,  when  the  Governor  tele- 
phoned that  he  wanted  a  meeting  of  the  Board  in  twenty  minutes. 
He  had  it.  Soon  he  came  in,  looked  at  the  pictures  once  more, 
and  asked  each  member  of  the  Board  if  he  had  changed  his  mind. 
All  the  minds  stood  firm.  It  was  up  to  his  Excellency.  He 
said  "  Well,  gentlemen,  it  is  time  we  had  a  show  down.  This 
thing  ought  to  be  settled.  I  see  that  if  it  is  settled  I  shall  have  to 
settle  it.  I  am  sorry  for  that.  I  feel  my  incompetency  to  settle 
such  a  matter  as  this.  I  am  a  lawyer  and  not  a  judge  of  archi- 
tecture. I  have  seen  much  of  the  best  architecture  of  the  world 
and  know  what  I  like,  but  I  have  never  studied  architecture  with 
reference  to  its  history  and  adaptations.  I  ought  not  to  have  to 
settle  this,  but  it  is  the  American  way  of  doing  public  business 
and  perhaps  it  is  all  right.  If  I  vote  for  the  No.  1  design  it  will 
be  chosen :  if  I  vote  for  the  No.  2  there  will  be  a  deadlock.  I 
would  avoid  a  deadlock  if  I  could  properly  do  so,  and  I  am  glad 
to  be  able  to  say  that  I  have  come  to  a  confident  conclusion  which 
will  do  it.  As  time  has  passed  I  have  become  more  and  more 
impressed  with  the  possibilities  of  the  classical  building;  I  have 
found  that  the  weight  of  competent  opinion  favors  it,  and  am 
convinced  that  it  will  be  safer  to  vote  for  it  than  the  other.  So 
the  secretary  may  call  the  roll  and  we  will  record  our  votes." 
The  result  was  four  to  two  in  favor  of  the  design  that  has  now 
been  executed,  and  every  month  of  its  progress  toward  com- 
pletion has  given  so  much  evidence  of  the  wisdom  of  the  de- 
termination that  those  who  at  first  doubted  have  been  convinced. 

It  was  May  16,  1907  when  the  Board  of  Award  announced  its 
final  conclusions.  The  board  made  some  suggestions  to  the 
architects  in  regard  to  minor  changes  and  one  important  change 


193 

in  the  front  elevation.  The  important  change  was  that  the  heavy 
cornice  shown  just  above  the  colonnade  in  the  original  sketch 
be  carried  higher  up  and  almost  to  the  point  where  it  would 
hide  the  roof.  This  was  done  with  good  result.  But  this  was 
by  no  means  the  sum  of  the  work  done  in  bringing  the  plans 
to  perfection  after  the  award  had  been  made.  The  architects  had 
followed  the  general  directions  given  them  and  made  provisions 
for  the  different  divisions  of  the  Department,  but  the  interior 
arrangement  had  to  be  all  worked  over  before  the  assignments 
were  satisfactory  to  the  interests  concerned.  This  was  done 
by  the  architects  and  the  officers  of  the  Education  Department 
with  a  patient  attention  to  detail  which  has  been  thoroughly 
appreciated  and  well  rewarded. 

The  architectural  treatment  of  this  building  was  decided  upon 
after  great  study  and  research.  A  building  of  this  character  must, 
primarily,  be  dignified,  imposing,  and  treated  in  a  style  which 
would  be  sure  to  retain  its  charm  through  all  the  periodical 
changes  of  fashion  in  styles.  The  fact  that  the  building  is  situated 
upon  a  street  the  width  of  which  does  not  permit  its  being  viewed 
in  front  from  any  considerable  distance,  and  the  fact  that  the 
building  must  face  the  south,  largely  determined  the  treatment 
of  the  main  facade ;  for,  in  the  first  place,  a  special  central  motif 
or  pavilion  was  clearly  not  called  for,  and,  secondly,  advantage 
must  be  taken  of  the  full  play  of  direct  sunlight.  Since  this 
facade  must  of  necessity  be  viewed  for  the  most  part  obliquely, 
it  would  be  essentially  happy  to  employ  a  colonnade,  the  effect 
of  which,  when  looked  at  obliquely  with  its  strongly  vanishing 
prospective  lines,  is  most  impressive,  and  which,  at  the  same 
time,  makes  the  most  of  the  interesting  possibilities  of  sunlight 
and  shadow.  Considering  all  these  conditions,  a  huge  colonnade, 
standing  well  out  from  a  wall  pierced  by  a  series  of  huge  semi- 
circular openings  which  allow  great  window  area,  and  produce 
a  secondary  architectural  effect,  was  decided  upon.  In  other 
words,  the  facade  consists  of  a  colonnade,  which  is  the  most 
dignified  of  architectural  motifs,  resting  on  a  proper  and  power- 
ful stylobate ;  behind  the  colonnade  is  an  arcade,  ample  in  its 
proportions  and  interesting  in  its  repetition.  The  entire  facade 
is  crowned  by  a  huge  solid  wall  or  attic  which  unifies  and  gives 
strength  to  the  facade,  at  the  same  time  expressing  the  walls  of 
the  museum.  The  end  facades  are  modifications  of  the  front, 
the  columnar  treatment  being  carried  across  the  ends,  and  the 


194 

rear  facade  recalls,  in  its  treatment,  the  wall  behind  the  colonnade 
in  front.  The  entire  building  is  covered  by  a  roof  of  copper, 
the  eaves  of  which  are  decorated  by  means  of  a  carved  cheneau. 
The  building  is  placed  50  feet  back  of  the  building  line,  and  the 
space  thus  afforded  will  be  treated  with  lawns,  trees,  hedges,  and, 
in  general,  with  the  elements  of  landscape  architecture.  A  mag- 
nificent flight  of  easy  steps  leading  to  the  main  entrance  at  the 
center  of  the  building.  The  materials  used  on  the  front  and  end 
facades  are  for  the  most  part  white  marble,  terra  cotta  and  dark 
granite;  the  latter  being  used  for  the  stylobate,  or  bate  of  the 
building.  The  rear  walls  of  the  building  use  a  light-colored 
vitreous  brick  and  terra  cotta. 

The  basement  contains  rooms  for  service  of  all  kinds,  rock- 
cutting  plant  for  the  museum,  workshop,  janitor's  and  cleaners' 
rooms,  toilet  rooms  for  the  staff  and  for  the  public,  storage  rooms, 
shipping  rooms,  a  driveway  and  court  for  shipping  purposes, 
elevators,  ventilating,  heating  and  lighting  apparatus,  and  the 
lower  floors  of  the  great  book  stack  of  the  library. 

At  the  eastern  end  of  the  building  beginning  in  the  basement 
and  occupying  two  stories  is  the  auditorium  with  a  gallery  and 
promenade  on  three  sides.  The  stage  which  has  an  architectural 
treatment  of  four  huge  Corinthian  columns  forming  a  curved 
loggia,  is  flanked  by  large  niches  for  pipe  organs.  The  auditorium 
is  lighted  by  twelve  large  windows  and  its  decorative  treatment 
is  in  a  modified  Greek  style. 

To  explain  more  in  detail  the  disposition  and  treatment  of  the 
building  it  will  be  best  to  consider  the  structure  from  the  point 
of  one  entering  the  building  by  the  great  flight  of  steps  cor* 
ducting  to  the  main  entrance  on  the  first  floor.  On  entering  the 
vestibule,  one  finds,  directly  opposite,  the  main  group  of  eleva- 
tors; to  the  right,  a  massive  and  easy  staircase  leading  directly 
to  the  second  floor  rotunda ;  and  to  the  left,  the  bureau  of  infor- 
mation. Under  the  staircase  leading  to  the  second  floor  rotunda, 
is  the  staircase  conducting  to  the  basement  floor.  On  the  first 
floor,  one  passes  from  the  entrance  vestibule  into  a  broad,  vaulted 
corridor  which  runs  east  and  west  and  leads  to  exits  at  both 
ends  of  the  building.  By  means  of  this  corridor  access  is  given 
to  the  different  offices  of  the  Education  Department.  The 
Regents'  chamber  and  the  rooms  of  the  Commissioner  of  Edu- 
cation will  receive  special  architectural  treatment.  The  Regents' 
chamber,    which    is    located    in    the   west    pavilion,    has    walls    of 


195 

Indiana  limestone  and  a  carved  beam  ceiling  of  oak.  The  Com- 
missioner's rooms  adjacent  to  the  Regents'  chamber  on  the  front 
of  the  building  are  treated  in  the  Tudor  style  of  Gothic  with 
mahogany  wainscoting.  Other  officers  on  the  front  to  the  left 
of  the  main  entrance  accommodate  the  three  Assistant  Commis- 
sioners and  the  Administration  Division.  To  the  right  of  the 
main  entrance  on  the  front  are  the  quarters  of  the  Visual  In- 
struction Division.  Beginning  at  the  western  end  in  the  rear  of 
the  building  are  located  the  School  Libraries  Division,  the  Law 
Division,  general  accommodations  for  stenographers  and  clerks, 
the  cashier's  office,  the  storekeeper's  room,  the  Inspections  Di- 
vision, the  Attendance  Division,  the  Statistics  Division,  and  the 
supply,  filing  and  mailing  rooms.  The  quarters  of  the  State  Ex- 
aminations Board  are  to  the  right  of  the  main  entrance  in  the 
rear.  The  wing  in  the  rear  on  the  first  floor  contains  the  con- 
tinuation of  the  book  stacks  and  at  either  side  the  rooms  for 
manuscripts,  maps  and  charts  and  for  cataloging,  accessions  etc. 
In  addition  to  the  elevators  already  mentioned  opposite  the  main 
entrance  there  are  two  passenger  elevators  at  the  eastern  and 
western  ends  of  the  building  and  one  on  either  side  of  the  rear 
wing.  There  are  also  minor  staircases  in  each  instance  near  these 
elevators. 

On  reaching  the  rotunda  on  the  second  floor,  already  men- 
tioned, several  vistas  open  to  view:  to  the  north  a  great  barrel- 
vaulted  corridor  40  feet  in  width,  46  feet  in  height  and  50  feet  in 
length,  leading  to  the  general  reference  reading  room ;  to  the  east 
a  shorter  vaulted  corridor  leading  to  the  technical  and  medical 
libraries ;  and  to  the  west  a  similar  corridor  leading  to  the  law 
and  sociological  libraries.  The  rotunda,  thus  located  at  the  in- 
tersection of  these  vaulted  corridors,  gives  a  dominating  climax 
to  the  architectural  treatment.  Over  the  rotunda,  supported  on 
pendentives,  is  a  circular  colonnade.  This  colonnade  in  turn 
supports  a  dome  in-  which  is  a  large  skylight  providing  direct 
daylight  to  the  rotunda  below.  This  rotunda  and  its  vaulted 
corridors  are  constructed  of  Indiana  limestone.  In  the  rotunda  are 
the  following  insciiptions :  "1784  1854  1904  The  University 
of  the  State  of  New  York ;"  "  Here  shall  be  gathered  the  best  books 
of  all  lands  and  all  ages ;"  "  This  library  aims  to  uplift  the  State 
and  serve  every  citizen ;"  "  A  system  of  free  common  schools  wherein 
all  the  children  of  this  State  may  be  educated."  Conveniently 
arranged  between  columns,  steel  cases  afford  suitable  provision 
7 


196 

for  the  most  interesting  historical  exhibits ;  the  rotunda  is  there* 
fore  virtually  a  historical  museum.  With  its  wings,  the  rotunda 
measures  about  100  feet  by  100  feet.  The  height  of  the  dome 
above  the  second  floor  is  94  feet.  Coming  now  to  the  disposition 
of  the  special  libraries  (medicine,  law,  sociological  and  technical) 
attention  is  called  to  an  innovation  of  a  highly  practical  character. 
This  is  the  introduction  of  stack  rooms  in  the  center  of  the  build- 
ing. This  arrangement  gives  the  reading  rooms  the  easiest  access 
possible  to  their  respective  collections  of  books.  The  archi- 
tectural treatment  of  these  rooms  is  consistently  simple  and 
dignified.  The  general  reference  reading  room,  with  its  depend- 
encies, occupies  practically  the  entire  north  wing.  It  is  placed 
directly  above,  and  in  immediate  connection  with,  an  immense 
stack  room  having  a  capacity  of  2,000,000  volumes.  Attention  is 
here  called  to  another  innovation  :  after  much  study  it  was  decided 
to  place  the  books  in  artificially  lighted  stack  rooms,  the  tem- 
perature, humidity  and  ventilating  of  which  could  be  absolutely 
^ontrolled.  The  architectural  treatment  of  the  general  reference 
reading  room  is  at  once  both  novel  and  bold.  It  consists  of 
twelve  slender  bronze  columns  supporting  a  series  of  terra  cotta 
domes.  The  walls  are  of  stone  and  the  room  receives  sunlight 
by  means  of  eleven  huge  leaded  glass  windows.  The  lateral  di- 
mensions of  this  room  are  106  feet  by  130  feet  and  the  height 
of  the  domes  is  about  50  feet.  On  this  floor,  in  connection  with 
the  rooms  already  described,  are  the  necessary  dependencies : 
offices  of  the  Director,  card  catalog  room,  studies,  coat  rooms, 
lavatories  etc. 

On  the  third  floor  are  located  the  offices  and  workrooms  of  the 
Examinations  Division,  the  Educational  Extension  Division  and 
the  Library  School.  The  main  reading  room  of  the  library 
already  mentioned  extends  through  the  third  floor. 

The  fourth  floor  is  devoted  entirely  to  the  State  Museum  and 
contains  the  State  collections  in  geology,  mineralogy,  paleon- 
tology, archeology,  botany  and  zoology.  These  collections  will 
be  housed  in  rooms  lighted  from  above.  The  principal  room  on 
the  south  side  of  the  building,  though  subdivided  into  sections, 
affords  a  vista  its  entire  length.  It  is  570  feet  in  length,  50  feet 
in  height  and  54  feet  in  width ;  it  is  not  equaled  in  open  and 
dignified  space  by  any  other  museum  in  the  country.  These 
rooms  are  all  given  an  agreeable  architectural  treatment.  Access 
is  afforHed  from  this  main  museum  to  the  north  wine  of  the  build- 


197 

ing;  on  going  to  the  north  wing,  one  passes  the  circular  colonnade 
of  the  rotunda  before  mentioned;  and  between  the  columns  a 
comprehensive  view  of  the  rotunda  is  afforded.  The  offices  of 
the  Director  of  the  museum  and  his  assistants  are  located  on  a 
mezzanine  in  the  rear,  adjacent  to  the  exhibition  rooms. 

Reviewing  the  plans,  as  a  whole,  attention  may  be  called  finally 
to  the  arrangement  of  practical  details ;  among  these  is  the 
location  of  the  driveway  court  under  the  north  wing  of  the  build- 
ing which  makes  the  delivery  of  books  easy  and  direct ;  the  con- 
centration of  lavatories  and  lockers  for  the  service  and  for  the 
public;  the  ample  provision  for  mechanical  transportation,  com- 
munication, ventilation,  heating  and  lighting ;  and  the  thorough- 
ness with  which  the  construction  of  the  building  insures  every 
modern  facility  for  administration  and  assures  every  protection 
against  fire. 

Such  are  the  principal  features  of  the  State  Education  Build- 
ing: the  effort  has  been  made  everywhere  to  answer  practical 
needs,  to  conserve  space  as  much  as  possible,  to  provide  for 
future  expansion  and  to  treat  the  building  in  a  thoroughly  sane 
and  modern  spirit  alike  in  its  utilitarian  and  its  esthetic  aspects. 

In  the  meantime  the  site  was  being  cleared  and  the  soil  tested 
for  stable  foundations.  The  reports  from  the  borings  were  that 
there  was  no  quicksand,  but  these  were,  to  some  extent  at  least, 
incorrect,  for  later  several  sand  pockets  were  found  which  delayed 
the  foundations  and  involved  considerable  unexpected  expense. 
It  was  May  1908  before  the  finished  plans  and  specifications 
could  be  delivered  to  contractors  who  might  make  tenders  for 
the  execution  of  the  work.  About  thirty  invitations  to  figure 
upon  the  work  or  parts  of  it  were  responded  to,  and  on  July 
10,  1908  the  contract  for  the  entire  work  was  let  to  the  R.  T. 
Ford  Company  of  Rochester  for  the  sum  of  $3,022,282.  The 
contract  price  was  somewhat  lower  than  had  been  expected  and 
this  obviated  the  necessity  of  eliminating  any  features  of  the 
approved  plans.  The  work  was  actually  commenced  July  29, 
1908,  when  the  first  shovelful  of  cement  and  the  first  wheel- 
barrow loads  of  broken  stone  were  thrown  into  the  trench. 
Governor  Hughes  and  the  Commissioner  of  Education  attended 
and  with  others  threw  their  pennies  into  the  mixture  in  order  to 
"  strengthen  the  foundations." 

While  the  work  was  in  progress  the  State  provided  for  and 
began  the  erection  of  a  new  central  heating  and  lighting  station 


198 

at  the  north  end  of  the  Hawk  Street  viaduct.  It  is  expected  that 
this  will  meet  the  needs  of  the  Capitol  and  Education  Building 
together  and  that  it  will  be  in  operation  by  the  fall  of  1912.  It 
will  lead  to  the  removal  of  the  old  station  and  provide  the  room 
for  the  extension  of  the  Education  Building  when  that  may 
be  necessary. 

By  the  terms  of  the  contract  the  work  should  have  been  com- 
pleted by  January  1,  191 1  and  if  it  had  been  the  collections  of  the 
Education  Department  would  have  escaped  serious  injury  by  the 
fire  which  destroyed  the  west  half  of  the  Capitol  March  29, 
191 1.  The  work  of  construction  often  dragged  and  in  the.  winters 
before  that  of  1911-1912  was  almost  completely  interrupted.  The 
issues  between  the  architects  and  the  builders  over  the  methods 
of  doing  the  work  were  many  and  marked  by  much  contro- 
versy. The  design  for  the  exterior  has  been  exactly  executed. 
Even  the  floor  plans  for  the  interior  were  so  carefully  studied 
at  the  beginning  that  the  changes  which  have  been  necessary 
in  such  a  monumental  structure  have  been  very  few.  In  view 
of  the  experience  at  the  New  York  City  Public  Library  recently 
erected  it  was  decided  to  put  a  composition  floor,  for  the  sake 
of  quiet,  in  all  of  the  main  rooms  of  the  State  Library ;  and  after 
the  Capitol  fire  it  was  decided  to  install  a  full  equipment  of 
safety  vaults  in  the  basement  which  should  be  burglar,  fire, 
and  dampness  proof,  for  the  care  of  historical  documents.  On 
the  whole,  the  work  has  progressed  as  satisfactorily  as  is  often 
experienced  in  such  a  large  building  erected  by  the  State.  Speak- 
ing of  size  it  may  be  observed  that  the  space  within  the  Educa- 
tion Building  is  11,348,850  cubic  feet  while  that  within  the 
Capitol  is  14,475,000  cubic  feet. 

January  1,  191 1  Hon.  John  Alden  Dix  became  Governor,  Hon. 
Thomas  F.  Conway  Lieutenant  Governor,  and  Hon.  Daniel  D. 
Frisbie  Speaker  of  the  Assembly,  and  therefore  Trustees  of  Pub- 
lic Buildings  in  charge  of  the  work.  They  have  worked  assidu- 
ously to  bring  the  structure  to  an  early  and  successful  com- 
pletion. Governor  Dix  has  gone  over  .the  building  occasionally, 
and  sagaciously  exercised  the  great  powers  of  his  high  office 
to  assure  the  most  satisfactory  results.  Hon.  Edwin  A.  Merritt, 
jr,  became  Speaker  of  the  Assembly  with  the  organization  of  the 
Legislature  of  1912  and  brought  to  the  final  stages  of  the  work 
on  the  material  side  the  enthusiasm  which  he  had  long  shown 
for  it  as  a  leader  in  the  lower  house. 


199 

In  1910  the  Legislature  consolidated  all  of  the  statutes  relat- 
ing to  public  education  in  the  "  Education  Law."  In  view  of 
the  progress  of  the  Education  Building  a  section  was  added 
(section  2j)  to  the  law,  providing  that  "  After  the  completion 
of  the  State  Education  Building  it  shall  be  occupied  exclusively 
by  the  Education  Department,  including  the  University,  with 
the  State  Library,  the  State  Museum,  and  its  other  departments, 
together  with  other  work  with  which  the  Commissioner  of  Edu- 
cation and  the  Regents  have  official  relations,  as  they  may  in 
their  discretion  provide  for  therein." 

Having  come  to  the  time  when  provision  must  be  made  for 
furnishing  the  new  building,  and  having  lost  the  major  part  of 
the  State  Library  by  fire,  the  Legislature  of  191 1  passed  the 
following  act: 

AN  ACT 

Providing  for  the  reestablishment  of  the  State  Library  and  making 
an  appropriation  therefor,  and  authorizing  contracts  for  furnish- 
ing the  Education  Building. 

The  People  of  the  State  of  New  York,  represented  in  Senate  and 
Assembly,  do  enact  as  follows: 

Section  1  The  Commissioner  of  Education  is  hereby  authorized 
and  directed,  pursuant  to  the  rules  of  the  Regents  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  the  State  of  New  York,  to  take  such  measures,  make  such 
contracts  and  incur  such  traveling  and  other  expenses,  not  exceed- 
ing in,  the  aggregate  the  sum  of  one  million  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  as  may  be  necessary  to  reestablish  and  enlarge 
the  State  Library,  by  gathering  suitable  books,  pamphlets,  manu- 
scripts and  other  materials  for  the  reference  library,  historical 
library,  education  library,  law  library,  medical  library,  technological 
library,  and  the  sociological,  genealogical  and  other  collections 
therefor,  so  as  not  only  to  restore  the  loss  and  remedy  the  damages 
to  the  State  Library  and  to  the  State  Museum  collections  therein 
occasioned  by  the  fire  which  occurred  in  the  State  Capitol  on  the 
29th  day  of  March,  191 1,  but  also  so  as  to  create  in  the  course  of 
years  a  comprehensive  State  Library  which  will  meet  the  varied 
needs  of  the  government  and  the  people  of  the  State  of  New  York. 
The  said  Commissioner  of  Education  shall  acquire,  by  purchase  or 
gift,  books,  pamphlets,  manuscripts,  records,  archives,  maps,  papers 
and  other  documents,  and  relics  and  museum  collections  to  replace, 
so  far  as  possible,  and  to  add  to  those  destroyed  or  damaged  by 
such  fire.  He  may  acquire  in  like  manner  such  other  property  as 
may  be  necessary  for  the  reestablishment  of  such  library,  and  when- 
ever practicable  may  cause  such  books,  manuscripts,  pamphlets, 
records,  maps  and  papers  as  may  have  been  damaged  by  such  fire 
to  be  repaired,  rebound  or  treated  in  such  other  way  as  he  may 
think    well.      The    said    books,    pamphlets,    manuscripts,    records, 


200 

archives,  maps,  papers  and  other  documents  and  property  thus 
gathered  shall  be  placed  in  and  become  a  part  of  the  New  York 
State  Library.  The  reestablishment  of  such  library  and  the  ac- 
quisition of  such  books,  pamphlets,  manuscripts,  records,  archives, 
maps,  papers  and  other  documents  and  property  shall  proceed  under 
and  be  subject  to  the  provisions  of  the  Education  Law,  and  the 
rules  and  directions  of  the  Regents  of  the  University  of  the  State 
of  New  York,  who  are  the  trustees  of  said  library ;  provided,  how- 
ever, that  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  in  making  contracts 
authorized  under  this  section,  shall  not  make  contracts  requiring 
the  payment  of  money  in  an  amount  in  excess  of  five  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  prior  to  October  i,  191 3.  The  sum  of  fifty  thou- 
sand dollars,  or  so  much  thereof  as  may  be  necessary,  which  shall 
be  available  immediately,  is  hereby  appropriated  out  of  any  moneys 
in  the  State  treasury  not  otherwise  appropriated,  for  the  purpose 
of  carrying  into  effect  the  provisions  of  this  section. 

§  2  The  Commissioner  of  Education  is  hereby  authorized  to  enter 
into  contracts  for  an  amount  not  to  exceed  in  the  aggregate  the 
sum  of  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  such  furniture  and  office 
fixtures  as  may  be  necessary  for  the  State  Education  Building  and 
the  rooms  and  offices  thereof. 

§  3  Nothing  in  this  act  shall  be  construed  to  create  a  liability 
on  the  part  of  the  State  for  the  payment  of  any  money  except  as 
such  payment  shall  be  provided  for  by  appropriations  made  herein 
or  hereafter,  pursuant  to  law. 

§  4  The  moneys  hereby  appropriated  shall  be  expended  under  the 
direction  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  in  accordance  with  the 
provisions  of  the  Education  Law  and  the  rules  of  the  Regents,  and 
shall  be  paid  out  on  the  warrant  of  the  Comptroller  in  the  same 
manner  as  other  moneys  appropriated  for  the  use  of  the  State 
Education  Department. 

§  5  This  act  shall  take  effect  immediately. 

This  act  became  a  law  on  October  24,  191 1,  by  the  approval 
of  Governor  Dix. 

A  large  part  of  the  furniture  of  the  building  will  be  of  metal. 
The  equipment  for  all  the  stacks  in  the  Library,  as  well  as  all  open 
shelving  used  throughout  the  building,  will  be  of  steel.  Metal  filing 
cases  will  be  used  in  the  main  filing  room  and  in  all  offices  where 
files  are  found  in  any  quantity.  The  desks,  chairs  and  tables  used 
in  the  various  offices  will  be  of  wood.  The  furniture  for  the 
Regents  room,  the  rotunda,  the  main  reading  room  in  the  Library, 
and  the  reference  library  reading  room,  has  been  especially  designed 
by  the  architects  to  harmonize  with  the  decorative  treatment  of 
the  rooms  themselves. 

Not  only  is  the  building  fire-proof  in  every  detail,  but  special 
provision  has  been  made  for  the  safekeeping  of  manuscripts  and 


201 

other  valuable  relics  which  are  in  the  possession  of  the  Department. 
A  large  safety  vault,  fifteen  by  forty-three  feet,  with  ample  steel 
boxes  and  cases,  has  been  built  in  the  basement.  Within  this  there 
is  a  smaller  vault  of  special  construction  which  will  be  used  for  the 
safekeeping  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  Washington's  Fare- 
well Address,  the  Andre  papers,  the  King  Charles  II  Charter,  the 
Washington  relics  and  other  unique  papers  and  relics.  With  the 
construction  of  these  vaults  every  provision  has  been  made  to  care 
for  the  valuable  manuscripts  and  records  held  by  the  Department. 

There  has  been  installed  a  special  switchboard  which  gives  long 
distance  telephone  connection  with  every  division  and  with  the 
larger  offices  throughout  the  Department.  There  is  also  an  inter- 
nal intercommunicating  system  for  the  various  offices,  and  a  telau- 
tograph for  all  sections  of  the  State  Library.  These  modern  and 
complete  methods  of  intercommunication  will  greatly  facilitate  the 
details  of  administration. 

The  ventilating  system  throughout  the  building  is  complete. 
Large  fans  for  forcing  fresh  air  to  all  offices  are  provided  in  the 
basement.  There  is  also  a  complete  vacuum  cleaning  system. 
These  provisions  insure  the  most  sanitary  and  hygienic  arrangements 
throughout  the  entire  building,  as  well  as  the  most  modern 
equipment. 

The  mural  paintings  which  are  to  adorn  the  grand  staircase  and 
the  rotunda  are  to  be  the  work  of  the  well-known  artist,  Mr  Will 
H.  Low.  The  general  title  of  the  paintings  is  to  be  "  The  Aspira- 
tion of  Man  for  Intellectual  Enlightenment  and  the  Results  of  its 
Attainment."  There  are  about  thirty-two  panels  with  approximately 
seventeen  hundred  and  thirty  square  feet  to  be  decorated.  It  is 
the  belief  of  the  artist  that  fifteen  of  these  spaces  may  contain 
developed  compositions  of  several  figures,  that  four  will  permit  the 
use  of  a  single  figure,  and  that  the  others  must  be  treated  by  deco- 
rative ornament.  Without  doubt  Mr  Low  will  produce  a  work 
worthy  to  remain  as  a  memorial  of  the  Empire  State. 

Thus  the  only  building  erected  by  any  American  state  or 
foreign  country  for  the  exclusive  use  of  its  educational  activities, 
comes  to  its  culmination.  It  is  a  culmination  as  beautiful  and 
magnificent  as  the  conception  was  honorable  and  inspiring.  And 
it  has  been  reached  without  a  public  scandal  and  within  the  cost 
originally  set  apart  for  the  great  enterprise. 


THE  NORMAL  PROGRESS  OF  THE  UNITED 

STATES 


203 


THE  NORMAL  PROGRESS   OF  THE  UNITED   STATES1 

Mr  Toastmaster  and  Gentlemen  of 

the    University   of   Vermont: 

I  have  always  looked  upon  the  University  of  Vermont  with 
something  of  the  same  feeling  that  I  do  upon  old  St  Andrews,  the 
university  that  has  held  up  the  light  of  learning  for  five  hundred 
years  upon  the  rugged  coast  of  Scotland,  and  I  am  glad  enough 
to  accept  the  invitation  of  my  friend  and  pastor,  Reverend  Doctor 
Hopkins,  to  break  bread  with  the  loyal  sons  of  such  an  honorable 
institution.  One  makes  a  mistake  when  he  undertakes  to  speak 
upon  a  subject  with  which  he  is  not  very  intimate,  to  those  who 
are  a  part  of  it  and  know  all  about  it.  Therefore  I  can  not  take 
your  university  for  my  theme.  But  I  have  a  theme  I  want  to 
talk  about  and  as  you  are  the  first  company  of  college  men  to 
whom  I  have  been  called  upon  to  speak  since  I  have  wanted  to 
talk  about  it  you  are  destined  to  be  the  victims. 

My  friend  Chancellor  Day,  of  Syracuse  University,  made  a 
speech  here  in  Albany  the  other  evening.  It  was  made  to  a 
seasoned  lot  of  college  men  who  enjoyed  it,  in  college  fashion, 
whether  they  accepted  it  or  not.  It  was  quickened  with  patriotic 
earnestness,  graced  with  imagination,  and  energized  with  good 
oratory.  I  think  its  premise  unfounded  and  its  logic  fallacious ; 
and  as  my  friend  is  not  an  intellectual  defective,  nor  a  femme  sole, 
and  does  not  need  a  guardian  ad  litem  in  any  court,  I  am  going  to 
make  free  to  say  something  about  it. 

I  would,  if  I  could,  repeat  all  of  that  speech  to  you,  but  if  I 
did  I  should  have  no  time  for  a  word  of  my  own.  In  brief  and 
in  general,  the  Chancellor  said  he  had  been  around  the  world 
without  seeing  an  American  flag  on  any  boat  save  one  limping 
craft  which  did  not  represent  his  country.  He  did  not  like  it. 
The  genius  which  built  our  railroads,  opened  our  mines,  and 
attended  to  all  our  large  business  interests  was  being  annihilated 
by  small  men  and  cruel  laws.  His  concrete  illustration  was  the 
growth  and  the  difficulties  of  that  helpless  child  of  the  State,  the 
New  York  Central  Railroad.  He  could  remember  when  one  had 
to  take  a  half  dozen  poor  trains  and  recheck  trunks  as  many  times, 


1Address  at  the  dinner  at  the  University  of  Vermont  Alumni,  Albany,  January 
3i»  1912. 

205 


206 

go  hungry,  pay  large  fares,  and  spend  two  days  going  from  New- 
York  to  Buffalo.  Now  he  removes  his  hat  to  the  Empire  State 
Express.  He  thought  it  too  bad  that  such  splendid  enterprise 
should  be  hampered  by  people  who  have  no  initiative  and  not 
much  referendum.  He  was  opposed  to  putting  down  genius  and 
destroying  big  business,  tie  was  not  a  pessimist;  he  still  had 
hopes  for  the  country;  but  things  looked  badly  to  him  and  he  had 
the  courage  to  say  so.  He  called  upon  the  spirits  of  the  great  to 
return.  He  wanted  the  ship  of  state  to  put  to  sea;  to  have  good 
winds  and  open  water;  to  be  commanded  by  a  real  captain;  and 
to  fly  plenty  of  flags  that  are  bright  with  color  and  full  of  stars. 

Now,  that  is  not  what  I  see  at  all.  My  friend  must  be  looking 
into  the  wrong  end  of  the  telescope,  or  into  one  pointed  at  some 
other  country  or  some  other  sphere.  My  glass  shows  a  hundred 
millions  of  people  among  whom  intelligence  is  almost  universal 
and  genius  widely  diffused;  making  no  obeisance  to  mere  might  in 
any  form ;  conserving  their  material  and  moral  and  political  estates ; 
grappling  with  the  newest  and  the  largest  social  and  economic 
questions;  and  developing  a  world  of  human  kinship,  and  human 
justice,  and  human  opportunity,  and  of  even-handed  human  prog- 
ress of  which  the  freest  imagination  in  all  literature  never  dreamed. 

It  is  true  that  we  have  not  much  of  a  merchant  marine.  What 
we  once  had  was  destroyed  by  the  Confederate  cruisers  in  the 
Civil  War.  I  happen  to  know  about  that  for  I  had  to  hear  the 
testimony.  When  it  happened,  our  relations  with  England  and  her 
dependencies  were  strained,  the  whale  fisheries  were  giving  out, 
and  we  were  not  buying  heavily  of  China  silks.  We  had  little 
spare  money  and  there  was  little  to  induce  putting  it  into  vessels 
of  the  sea.  Both  our  imports  and  our  exports  were  few.  Other 
nations  built  up  a  carrying  trade  by  subsidies,  to  which  more  than 
half  our  people  seem  to  be  conscientiously  opposed.  Without 
knowing  any  too  much  about  it,  I  think  I  would  have  put  less 
money  into  battleships  and  more  into  ships  that  would  carry  people 
and  mails  and  goods  to  and  from  the  other  nations  of  the  world. 
But  there  is  nothing  significant  or  ominous  about  it.  One  may 
often  get  along  more  economically  or  use  his  money  to  more 
advantage  by  living  in  a  hired  house.  Both  our  exports  and  im- 
ports were  larger  last  year  than  in  any  other  year  in  our  history; 
and  larger  in  the  last  five  years,  and  in  the  last  ten  years,  than  in 
any  other  five  or  ten  years  since  we  became  a  nation.  I  too  have 
been  in  foreign  harbors  and  cities,  and  never  without  seeing  our 


207 

flag  in  all  her  glory.  No  other  nation  is  ignorant  of  the  United 
States.  There  is  not  another  people  in  the  world  who  are  not 
looking  longingly  beyond  what  Kipling  calls  the  "  salted  seas  "  to 
what  Ambassador  Reid  calls  "  the  greatest  fact  in  modern  history  " 
—  the  great  new  nation  of  the  world. 

Now,  as  to  our  hobbling  genius,  let  us  take  the  same  illustration 
that  Chancellor  Day  does  —  the  New  York  Central  Railroad.  We 
all  admire  the  business  thrift  that  bound  a  half  dozen  short  roads 
together,  that  laid  more  tracks  and  built  greater  engines,  and 
developed  better  and  faster  trains.  But  how  can  one  ignore  the 
metho'ds  that  were  employed,  or  shut  his  eyes  to  what  would  have 
been  if  New  York  State  had  not  "  put  restraints  upon  enterprise ! " 
That  road  overreached  the  people  with  the  very  power  it  got  from 
them.  It  misled  and  corrupted  legislatures  to  circumvent  restraints 
and  get  more  power.  By  maneuvering  rates  of  transportation  and 
issuing  new  securities,  it  robbed  its  own  patrons.  By  organizations 
within  organizations  its  directors  filched  their  own  stockholders. 
It  employed  the  ablest  lawyers,  manipulated  jury  lists,  influenced 
jurors,  and  even  reached  after  judgeships  to  strengthen  its  hands 
and  defeat  all  claims  made  upon  it.  It  engaged  in  politics  all 
along  its  lines,  aiding  the  men  in  all  parties  who  would  respond  to 
its  demands.  There  was  no  golden  rule  in  its  vocabulary,  and  it 
was  before  law  had  anticipated  such  a  power  and  such  a  danger. 
Happily  that  is  largely  if  not  wholly  in  the  past.  If  the  thing  had 
gone  on  we  would  have  shown  our  incapacity  for  government  and 
the  State  of  New  York  would  have  become  the  State  of  the  New 
York  Central. 

But  this  railroad  was  not  content  with  uniting  short  roads  in  a 
continuous  line  from  New  York  to  Buffalo ;  it  was  bent  upon  con- 
necting great  links  in  through  lines  from  New  York  and  Boston 
to  St  Louis,  Kansas  City  or  San  Francisco.  Other  great  roads 
had  the  same  ambitions.  They  even  had  some  thought  of  getting 
together  and  taking  possession  of  the  country.  When  one  state 
tried  to  deal  with  them  they  would  step  over  the  line  into  another 
state  that  was  unprepared  for  them,  and  their  astute  lawyers 
would  raise  legal  questions  enough  to  paralyze  the  state  courts  and 
legislatures.  Congress  and  the  Federal  courts  had  to  unite  with 
the  states  in  dealing  with  the  subject;  and  it  was  one  without 
precedent  and  of  profound  difficulty. 

Law-making  always  seems  difficult  except  to  those  who  know 
nothing  about   it.     It   is   somewhat   difficult   to   those   who   know 


208 

something  about  it,  and  particularly  difficult  to  those  who  know  most 
about  it.  There  was  never  more  difficulty  in  making  laws,  than  in 
making  laws  which  will  sustain  the  rights  of  the  people,  secure 
good  service,  and  assure  fair  profits  to  honest  investors  in  the 
public  utilities.  It  has  taken  a  long  time  to  get  started  at  this 
problem  and  will  take  a  long  time  to  finish  it.  Probably  it  will 
never  be  completed.  Mistakes  may  have  been  made  and  likely 
others  will  be  made.  When  they  become  evident  they  will  in  time 
be  corrected.  But  the  work  progresses  with  a  disposition  to  be 
just  and  a  determination  to  be  successful.  The  progress  does 
credit  to  the  people  and  proves  the  worth  of  popular  government. 

The  leading  railroad  officials  are  glad  because  they  do  not  have 
to  engage  in  the  miserable  business  that  was  once  expected  of 
them.  The  railroad  business  has  become  respectable.  The  public 
is  being  better  served.  Individual  rights  are  more  regarded.  Claims 
are  more  honestly  adjusted.  Securities  are  safer.  A  moral  rather 
than  an  immoral  influence  flows  from  the  new  situation.  It  edu- 
cates the  mass  in  moral  sense  and  in  respect  for  law,  to  know 
that  democracy  can  deal  as  justly  and  as  effectually  with  rail- 
roads owned  by  individual  stockholders  as  monarchy  manages  the 
royal  roads  of  other  lands.  There  is  satisfaction  and  hope,  promise 
and  patriotism  in  it. 

The  same  thing  is  going  en  as  to  gas  and  electric  light,  and  tele- 
phone and  telegraph,  and  trolley,  and  all  public  service  corpora- 
tions. It  is  going  on,  too,  as  to  the  men  who  have  thought  of 
taking  possession  of  the  world  supply  of  commodities  which  the 
whole  world  needs.  There  is  nothing  more  difficult  in  law-making 
than  in  so  arranging  that  the  combined  power  shall  not  be  used  for 
private  advantage  but  only  for  the  common  good,  and  without 
thwarting  genius  and  discouraging  enterprise.  In  a  democracy 
with  such  a  domain,  such  resources,  such  consummate  ingenuity, 
energy  and  ambition  as  we  have  in  the  United  States,  it  is  a  matter 
which  claims  and  is  having  the  transcendent  genius  of  the  country. 
Nothing  more  heartening  was  done  at  Runnymede,  or  at  old  In- 
dependence Hall,  or  at  Saratoga,  or  at  Gettysburg  and  Appomattox. 

The  people,  particularly  the  youth,  ought  not  to  be  confused  by 
the  necessities  of  men  who  have  to  make  midnight  speeches  after 
too  hearty  meals.  Philosophers  and  guides  and  orators  must  turn 
their  telescopes  so  as  to  get  a  near-to  rather  than  a  far-away  look 
at  the  American  ship  of  state.  She  is  not  tied  up ;  she  is  not  fall- 
ing apart.     She  is  running  fast  enough,  in  an  open  sea,  before  a 


209 

fair  wind,  with  plenty  of  canvas  and  no  lack  of  coal.  She  is  not 
even  rolling;  there  is  no  danger  of  her  turning  turtle.  The  lights 
are  those  of  our  churches,  and  schools,  and  universities.  The 
charts  have  grown  out  of  a  thousand  years'  experience  in  a  world- 
wide struggle  for  the  rights  of  man.  The  flags  are  right  side  up. 
The  ship  runs  into  a  bit  of  a  breeze  and  into  a  fog  now  and  then ; 
but  the  captains  and  the  mates  are  experienced  skippers  in  political 
seas.  The  sailors  scrap  once  in  a  while,  as  all  good  sailors  do, 
but  there  is  not  one  of  them  who  would  not  fight  for  the  ship. 
The  passengers  are  cheerful,  and  tolerant,  and  expectant,  capable 
of  making  the  rules  that  are  needed,  and  ready  to  be  restrained  by 
them.  Of  course  there  are  a  few  excited  people  wanting  some- 
thing and  talking  much,  but  even  they  do  not  feel  as  badly  as  they 
pretend.  The  good  ship  is  a  sight  for  the  whole  world  to  behold 
and  fortunate  are  the  people  who  journey  in  her.  She  is  the 
staunchest  vessel,  with  the  surest  charts,  the  finest  lights,  the  full- 
est larder,  the  fairest  company,  and  upon  the  noblest  mission,  that 
ever  traversed  any  sea. 


RURAL  SUPERVISION  IN  NEW  YORK 


RURAL  SUPERVISION  IN  NEW  YORK1 

With  the  beginning  of  19 12  a  new  and  rather  radical  scheme  for 
the  supervision  of  the  rural  schools,  that  is  all  schools  outside  of 
the  cities  and  the  villages  of  five  thousand  inhabitants,  went  into 
operation  in  the  State  of  New  York.  The  controlling  idea  of  this 
new  plan  of  rural  supervision  is  "that  it  is  time  for  the  "  rural, 
school  problem  "  to  be  dissolved  in  the  proposition  that  the  country 
schools  are  to  be  organized  and  supervised  as  completely  as  the  city 
schools.  I  am  glad  to  respond  to  the  request  of  the  Educational 
Review  that  I  shall  say  something  about  the  features  of  this  plan. 

First,  it  is  well  to  say  a  word  about  the  alleged  plan  which  it 
has  supplanted.  The  Legislature  of  1812  passed  an  act  (a)  creat- 
ing the  office  of  State  Superintendent  of  Common  Schools;  (b) 
providing  for  the  election  of  three  town  commissioners  in  each 
town  at  the  annual  town  meeting,  whose  duty  it  should  be  to  have 
charge  of  the  State  school  moneys  apportioned  to  the  town,  to 
divide  the  town  into  separate  school  districts  so  as  to  accommodate 
all  the  families  as  well  as  might  be,  and  generally  to  represent  the 
State  in  looking  after  the  school  interests  of  the  town;  (c)  pro- 
viding for  the  election  at  each  town  meeting  of  not  to  exceed  six 
other  persons  who  with  the  town  commissioners  should  constitute  a 
board  of  town  school  inspectors,  who  were  required  to  examine  and 
license  teachers,  inspect  the  schools,  and  report  to  the  local  trustees 
on  the  proficiency  of  the  schools;  and  (d)  providing  for  the  elec- 
tion of  school  trustees  at  the  district  meeting  in  each  district,  who 
were  required  to  build  and  maintain  the  schoolhouse  and  employ 
the  teacher. 

The  essential  provisions  and  the  thought  of  this  act  have  con- 
tinued in  operation  without  interruption  for  an  even  hundred 
years.  The  titles  of  the  supervising  officers  and  the  units  of 
territory  they  supervised  were  changed  several  times  because  of 
dissatisfaction  with  something  done,  or  because  it  was  thought 
some  reform  might  be  effected,  or  because  a  political  party  gained 
the  power  to  put  some  of  its  opponents  out  and  some  of  its 
partisans  in  by  means  of  a  reorganization ;  but  the  idea  that  the 
rural  schools  should  be  looked  after  by  lay  rather  than  profes- 
sional officers,  who  were  not  required  to  possess,  and  were  often 


iWritten  for  the  Educational  Review  and  published  in  the  February  19 12 
number. 

213 


214 

actually  without,  any  substantial  qualifications  for  supervising  the 
teaching  in  the  schools,  has  been  in  operation  for  a  century.  They 
exercised  in  a  general  way  the  authority  of  the  State  over  the 
schools  of  a  town,  a  county,  or  half  of  a  county;  they  were 
chosen  on  political  tickets  at  general  elections;  they  were  very 
dependent  upon  politics,  and  many  of  them  became  wheels  in  the 
political  machinery  of  the  State. 

Of  course  this  gave  the  old  plan  a  hard  and  fast  hold  upon  the 
common  thought  of  the  people.  To  be  sure,  many  excellent  officers 
were  chosen,  and  some  without  much  fitness  at  the  beginning  be- 
came measurably  efficient;  but  aspiration  for  the  places  was  not 
limited  by  fitness;  parties  regarded  the  places  not  only  as  legiti- 
mate political  plunder,  but  made  the  tenure  of  the  men  who  held 
them  contingent  upon  subordination  to  party  leaders  and  activity 
in  the  party  organization.  The  scheme  worked  very  well  indeed 
for  many  years,  and  was  doubtless  the  only  one  possible  in  the 
early  days  when  there  was  no  such  thing  as  professional  school 
supervision  either  in  city  or  country,  and  before  politics  had 
developed  so  many  masterful  artists;  but  it  came  to  work  very 
badly  as  school  supervision  became  more  and  more  an  exact  science 
and  more  and  more  was  demanded  of  the  schools.  Even  that  did 
not  make  its  dislodgement  easy  so  long  as  patriots  wanted  places 
and  the  political  captains  in  the  county  committees  and  the  legis- 
latures needed  lieutenants,  and  so  long  as  it  was  not  difficult  to 
make  many  people  believe  that  their  "  rights  "  to  elect  their  own 
officers  would  be  outraged  if  the  law  limited  the  selection  of  school 
superintendents  to  those  who  could  supervise  schools,  or  provided 
for  appointing  school  experts  in  some  other  way  than  by  means 
of  a  caucus  and  a  general  election.  When  a  bill  providing  a  better 
way  was  prepared  and  introduced  in  the  Legislature  by  the  State 
Education  Department,  it  could  hardly  muster  enough  support  to 
maintain  the  respectability  of  the  Department.  But  we  said  we 
would  take  our  time  for  pushing  the  matter  to  a  conclusion,  and 
began  a  systematic  appeal  to  the  public  opinion  of  the  State.  In 
particular  an  aggressive  agitation  was  waged  in  the  educational 
and  agricultural  organizations.  Honest  objections  were  answered 
patiently.  Subtle  ones  were  exposed.  Once  more  the  advantage 
of  going  directly  to  the  people  with  a  good  cause  was  demon- 
strated. It  required  more  courage  to  be  against  the  measure  in 
the  Legislature  of  1910  than  to  be  for  it  in  the  Legislature  of 
1905.  In  1910  it  became  a  law,  and  went  into  complete  operation 
at  the  beginning  of  1912. 


215 

The  essential  features  of  this  law  may  be  set  forth  as  follows: 
i  It  practically  doubles  the  number  of  rural  supervisory  dis- 
tricts, thus  making  districts  small  enough  to  permit  of  frequent 
visits  to  all  schools  and  frequent  meetings  of  teachers  for  instruc- 
tion and  conference  without  their  being  away  from  home  over 
night. 

2  It  creates  a  board  of  school  directors  in  each  supervisory  dis- 
trict, consisting  of  two  members  from  each  town,  chosen  at  the 
general  election,  whose  sole  and  only  duty  is  to  appoint  a  super- 
intendent of  schools.  The  tenure  of  the  superintendent  is  five 
years,  and  he  has  a  salary  of  $1200  paid  by  the  State  and  also 
has  his  expenses  up  to  $300  audited  and  paid  by  the  State.  The 
salary  and  the  maximum  of  expenses  may  be  increased  by  the 
towns  in  the  supervisory  district  through  the  action  of  the  town 
supervisors.  The  manner  of  appointing  the  superintendent  was 
the  most  difficult  feature  of  the  whole  matter.  Many  methods 
were  considered  and  this  one  finally  chosen  because  it  harmonizes 
with  the  method  of  appointment  in  the  cities,  and  it  was  thought 
that,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  it  centralizes  responsibility  in  a  board 
which  has  no  other  power,  would  go  quite  as  far  as  any  other 
method  could  to  remove  the  appointment  from  the  influence  of 
politics  and  give  the  superintendent  needed  independence. 

3  The  board  may  appoint  the  superintendent  only  from  the 
eligibles  approved  by  the  State  Education  Department.  To  be 
eligible  one  must  hold  a  certificate  of  the  State  Department  con- 
ferring the  right  to  teach  for  life  in  any  school  in  the  State,  when 
employed,  without  further  examination,  and  must  pass  an  exam- 
ination, held  by  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  in  the  teaching 
of  agriculture.  This  provision  about  the  agricultural  examination 
was  not  in  the  bill  as  originally  prepared ;  it  was  inserted  on 
motion  of  a  member  when  the  measure  was  under  consideration  in 
the  lower  house;  but  as  it  was  surely  harmless  and  possibly  help- 
ful, no  effort  was  made  to  repeal  or  eliminate  it.  The  school 
directors  -to  the  number  of  about  1800  were  chosen  at  the  general 
election  in  November  1910.  The  people  were  urged  to  choose 
two  good  men  in  each  town  without  regard  to  partisanship.  This 
was  generally  regarded;  in  some  cases  each  of  the  leading  parties 
named  one  man.  Immediately  after  their  election  the  directors 
were  asked  by  the  Commissioner  of  Education  to  rise  above  all 
partisanship,  to  refrain  from  committing  themselves  to  any  candi- 
date until  after  full  consideration  of  all  possible  candidates  by  the 
board,  and  if  necessary  to  repel  candidates  and  look  far  for  the 


2l6 

best  superintendent  they  could  find  for  their  district.  The  law 
required  the  boards  to  meet,  but  only  for  organization  and  dis- 
cussion, on  the  third  Tuesday  of  May  191 1,  and  to  meet  for  the 
appointment  of  a  superintendent  on  the  third  Tuesday  of  August 
191 1.  The  terms  of  office  of  the  district  superintendents  chosen 
in  August  last  will  expire  July  13,  19 16.  Their  terms  are  made  tj 
expire  at  the  end  of  a  school  year;  thereafter  the  regular  term 
of  all  district  superintendents  will  begin  August  1st,  which  is  the 
beginning  of  a  school  year.  District  superintendents  will  be 
chosen  on  the  third  Tuesday  in  June  in  1916,  and  thereafter  every 
five  years.  Members  of  the  boards  of  school  directors  will  be 
chosen  in  succeeding  years.  Nearly  all  boards  appointed  superin- 
tendents without  friction  on  the  day  named  in  the  law.  A  few 
boards  could  not  agree  at  once  and  adjourned  to  a  later  day,  but 
have  since  made  appointments.  Opposition  to  the  system  has  prac- 
tically disappeared.  All  are  now  disposed  to  give  it  a  thorough 
trial.  Candidates  rustled  around  a  good  deal  to  secure  support. 
One  who  tried  and  failed  to  qualify  decided  that  the  law  invaded 
the  Constitutions  of  both  the  State  and  Nation,  but  up  to  date 
the  court  has  disagreed  with  him.  On  the  whole,  the  appoint- 
ments of  superintendents  have  gone  very  smoothly.  There  are 
207  supervisory  districts.  Of  the  206  superintendents  appointed 
at  this  writing,  62  are  college  graduates,  92  are  graduates  of  State 
normal  schools,  35  hold  state  life  certificates,  and  28  hold  teachers 
permanent  certificates.  All  have  had  pedagogical  training  and 
teaching  experience. 

4  The  Education  Law  provides: 

Section  394.  District  superintendents  not  to  engage  in  other 
business.  A  district  superintendent  of  schools  shall  devote  his 
whole  time  to  the  performance  of  the  duties  of  his  office  and  shall 
not  engage  in  any  other  occupation  or  profession.  Such  time  as 
shall  not  necessarily  be  devoted  by  a  district  superintendent  of 
schools  to  the  performance  of  the  clerical  and  administrative  work 
of  his  office  shall  be  devoted  to  the  visitation  and  inspection  of  the 
schools  maintained  in  his  supervisory  district. 

The  law  is  very  explicit  in  the  powers  which  it  confers  and  the 
limitations  which  it  places  upon  the  superintendents.  They  are 
also  subject  to  the  rules  and  directions  of  the  Commissioner  of 
Education  and  are  removable  by  him  for  immoral  conduct,  incom- 
petency, or  neglect  of  duty.  As  the  directors  may  fill  a  vacancy 
at  once,  there  is  less  objection  to  creating  one  than  when  election 
was  by  the  people.     The  superintendents  have  the  power  to  re- 


217 

form  and  reorganize  the  school  system  in  all  the  rural  parts  of  the 
State.  They  may  require  hygienic  and  properly  equipped  school- 
houses.  They  may  condemn  schoolhouses  and  outbuildings  and 
require  others  to  be  built.  If  they  do  not  abate  nuisances,  they 
may  be  abated  as  nuisances  themselves.  They  may  require  addi- 
tional furnishings,  and  see  that  whatever  a  school  needs  is  pro- 
vided. They  are  to  travel  about  among  the  schools  continually, 
looking  after  the  program  and  the  morale  and  the  teaching.  They 
are  to  hold  conferences  of  teachers  by  towns,  or  two  towns,  as  may 
be  convenient.  They  are  to  have  similar  conferences  with  trustees. 
They  are  to  get  the  people  of  the  different  districts  together  now 
and  then  and  agitate  for  better  schoolhouses  and  more  attractive 
grounds,  for  better  wages,  better  teaching,  and  more  attractive  and 
efficient  schools.  They  are  to  do  all  that  a  city  superintendent 
may  do,  and  possibly  more  than  he  can  do,  to  make  the  schools  of 
their  districts  uniformly  excellent.  They  have  full  authority  to  do 
this,  and  they  will  not  be  allowed  to  neglect  the  very  important 
business  that  has  been  committed  to  them.  They  have  been  com- 
missioned to  lead  the  educational  work  of  their  districts  and  they 
must  execute  their  commissions. 

This  may  seem  like  strong  language.  Some  people  require 
strong  language.  It  is  better  not  to  have  to  use  it,  but  a  great 
undertaking  can  not  be  allowed  to  fail,  or  partially  fail,  because 
of  dearth  of  determination  or  lack  of  strong  language.  The  dis- 
trict superintendents  have  been  supplied  with  blanks  calling  for 
information  concerning  every  interest  of  the  schools,  and  will  be 
required  to  make  a  detailed  report  to  the  Third  Assistant  Com- 
missioner of  Education,  at  the  close  of  every  week,  of  their  work 
on  each  day  of  the  preceding  week,  to  the  end  that  no  interest  of 
any  school  shall  be  overlooked. 

Of  course,  the  new  system  is  to  be  on  trial.  The  superintend- 
ents are  on  trial.  So  are  the  State  Education  Department  and  the 
Commissioner  of  Education.  All  intend  to  make  good.  With 
modern  means  of  getting  about  and  the  present-day  facilities  for 
communication,  there  is  no  need  of  assuming  that  the  "  country 
school  problem  "  is  an  insoluble  thing.  If  the  states  will  put  state 
money,  and  state  authority,  and  the  experience  of  their  educational 
leaders  into  the  business,  there  may  be  just  as  good  schools  in  the 
country  as  in  the  city,  and  perhaps  even  a  little  better.  And  when 
there  are  it  will  make  farms  more  valuable,  farmers  more  pros- 
perous and  happier,  and  states  stronger. 


CITY  SCHOOLS  ENTITLED  TO  A  GOVERNMENT 
OF  THEIR  OWN 


CITY  SCHOOLS  ENTITLED  TO  A  GOVERNMENT  OF 
THEIR  OWN  1 

Albany,  February  5,  19 12 
Editor,  Union  and  Advertiser 

Rochester,  N.  Y. 
Dear  sir: 

The  inclosed  editorial  note  from  your  paper,  copied  in  the 
Albany  Knickerbocker-Press,  concerning  the  recommendation  of 
my  latest  annual  report  that  the  statutes  relating  to  schools  in 
cities  be  transferred  from  the  city  charters  to  the  Education  Law, 
is  so  fair  that  I  am  impelled  to  depart  from  my  ordinary  custom 
and  say  that  it  seems  to  me  that  the  recommendation  does  not 
make  itself  clear  to  you. 

The  question  whether  it  is  well  "  to  transfer  control  of  city 
school  systems  to  the  State  "  is  not  involved  in  the  recommenda- 
tion. The  proposition  that  the  State  should  take  control  of  the 
schools  as  it  has  taken  control  of  the  penal,  reformatory,  and 
charitable  institutions,  would  surely  be  absurd.  How  much  popu- 
lar and  how  much  professional  control,  how  much  local  and  how 
much  State  control,  there  shall  be  over  the  schools  may  well  be 
determined  by  resulting  efficiency,  and  as  to  that  experience  must 
be  the  guide.  Where  popular  sentiment  is  keen  and  rational  about 
the  schools,  not  much  outside  control  is  desirable  and  of  course  it 
is  necessary  to  pursue  the  policies  which  will  quicken  and  guide 
popular  sentiment.  Where  the  sentiment  is  not  keen  and  where 
the  condition  of  the  schools  is  low,  the  State  is  not  only  bound 
to  intervene  and  execute  the  mandate  of  the  Constitution  that  "  the 
Legislature  shall  provide  for  the  maintenance  and  support  of  a 
system  of  free  common  schools,  wherein  all  the  children  of  the 
State  may  be  educated,"  but  I  suppose  everybody  would  agree 
that  it  is  the  business  of  the  State  to  make  the  entire  educational 
system  of  the  State  as  strong  and  efficient  as  practicable.  And 
probably  no  one  would  dissent  from  the  proposition  that  where 
the  money  of  the  State  goes,  there  its  authority  must  go,  and  that 
State  leadership  may  well  be  as  extensive  and  forceful  as  may  be 
necessary  to  upbuild  interests  that  are  common  to  all  the  people. 


Letters  addressed  to  a  Rochester  newspaper,  and  reprints  of  articles  printed 
in  said  paper,  upon  the  control  of  city  school  systems. 

221 


222 

But  that  is  not  the  immediate  question  and  I  speak  of  it  only 
because  you  refer  to  it.  My  recommendation  neither  involves  nor 
contemplates  any  changes  in  the  law  except,  of  course,  as  future 
experience  may  make  advisable.  It  proposes  only  that  the  school 
statutes  relating  to  the  cities  shall  be  taken,  just  as  they  are,  from 
the  city  charters  and  incorporated  in  the  State  Education  Law. 
The  educational  system  is  a  state-wide,  a  universal  system.  It  has 
nothing  in  common  with  the  diversified  plans  and  methods  of  mu- 
nicipal government.  Cities  are  only  large  school  districts,  the 
people  of  which  are  entitled  to  regulate  their  own  school  affairs 
without  submitting  them  to  city  officers  and  councils,  at  least  so 
long  as  they  do  not  break  down  the  system  of  education  which 
the  State  is  required  to  maintain. 

It  has  been  completely  established  that  school  officers  in  cities 
are  not,  in  law,  city  officers.  Manifestly  it  is  not  to  the  interest 
of  the  schools  to  be  mixed  up  with  city  politics.  Then  why  should 
the  people  of  a  city  have  to  procure  an  amendment  to  the  city 
charter  every  time  they  want  to  improve  their  schools  and  why 
should  the  school  laws  relating  to  a  city  be  all  stirred  up  whenever 
the  charter  is  revised? 

My  point  is  that  the  schools  of  all  the  cities  would  be  upon  a 
surer  footing  and  educational  progress  would  be  more  likely,  if 
when  the  schools  needed  a  change  in  their  law  they  did  not  have 
to  come  in  conflict  with  the  men  who  think  most  about  city  char- 
ters, and  if  the  men  whose  functions  are  to  shape  the  charters  did 
not  feel  free  to  make  sweeping  changes  in  the  school  laws  whenever 
they  found  it  well  to  make  changes  in  the  charters.  There  is  noth- 
ing revolutionary  about  it :  it  is  only  moving  in  the  direction  of  fur- 
ther separating  the  common  schools  from  all  partisanship.  There 
is  no  purpose  to  urge  it  before  there  is  ample  time  for  popular  con- 
sideration. But  I  suspect  that  it  will  come  after  a  time,  as  other 
things  do  when  they  are  right. 

Thanking  you  very  much  for  your  spirit  of  fairness  concerning 
a  suggestion  which  has  not  appealed  to  you,  I  am 
Very  sincerely  yours 

A.  S.  Draper 

Commissioner  of  Education 


223 

From  the  Union  and  Advertiser,  Rochester,  February  9,  1912: 
Doctor  Draper's  position  on  the  school  system 

In  another  column  on  this  page  will  be  found  a  communication  from 
State  Commissioner  of  Education  Andrew  S.  Draper,  commenting  upon  a 
paragraph  in  an  editorial  in  this  paper  concerning  his  annual  report.  The 
paragraph  referred  to  is  as  follows : 

Doctor  Draper's  proposal  to  transfer  control  of  city  school  systems 
to  the  State  is  too  big  to  be  settled  within  l  few  months  or  years. 
It  involves  such  changes  that  it  is  sure  to  arouse  great  opposition.  The 
benefits  to  be  derived  from  such  a  move  are  many,  but  it  is  doubtful 
that  the  cities  will  willingly  relinquish  control  of  their  schools.  This 
is  the  first  formal  proposal  of  a  change  that  has  had  but  little  general 
discussion.  It  is  a  matter  to  be  settled  by  the  people  and  their  advisers, 
the  educators.  If  the  latter  are  able  to  persuade  the  former  that  it  will 
be  to  the  benefit  of  the  schools  to  give  them  over  to  the  control  of  the 
State,  well  and  good,  the  change  will  be  made.  But  whatever  the 
advantages  of  such  a  school  system,  we  are  of  opinion  that  they  are 
not  sufficient  to  overcome  very  soon  the  satisfaction  of  the  people  with 
the  present  condition  of  things. 

Doctor  Draper's  complimentary  references  to  the  fairness  of  The  Union 
and  Advertiser  are  highly  appreciated.  It  is  pleasing  to  know  that  our 
fairness  is  seen,  even  where  we  may  have  been  mistaken  as  to  the  meaning 
of  a  proposition  which  we  did  not  accept  as  valid.  We  are,  however,  not 
entirely  at  fault  in  mistaking  Doctor  Draper's  proposal  to  transfer  the  laws 
controlling  the  government  of  city  school  systems  from  the  city  charters 
to  the  State  Education  Law  as  a  proposal  to  transfer  the  control  of  the 
schools  from  the  cities  to  the  State.  Our  error,  if  there  be  any  on  our 
part,  arises  from  the  language  of  the  summary  or  abstract,  as  it  is  called, 
of  the  report  of  the  Education  Department  to  the  Legislature.  This  sum- 
mary is  official  and  upon  the  subject  under  discussion  quotes  as  follows: 
"  The  law  regulating  the  local  control  and  management  of  the  schools  of 
the  several  cities  of  the  State  should -be  taken  out  of  the  city  charters  and 
should  be  incorporated  in  the  Education  Law."  This  is  declared  in  the 
summary  to  be  the  language  of  the  report  itself.  It  will  be  seen  that  the 
word  "  control "  is  used  in  the  report  and  that  we  therefore  may  be  par- 
doned if  we  assumed  that  Doctor  Draper  meant  that  the  State  should  under 
his  proposal  control  the  schools. 

But  let  us  consider  these  words  as  they  stand.  If  "the  law  regulating 
the  local  control  and  management "  of  the  city  schools  does  control  them 
when  this  law  is  in  the  city  charter,  why  will  it  fail  to  control  them  when 
it  is  transferred  to  the  Education  Law?  And  if  the  Education  Law  is 
part  of  the  State  law,  why,  then,  does  not  the  State,  with  this  law  taken 
from  the  city  charters  and  incorporated  into  the  Education  Law,  control 
the  schools  ?  The  next  sentence  in  Doctor  Draper's  report  says :  "  This 
action  may  be  taken  without  confusion  and  without  decreasing  in  the 
slightest  the  powers  now  conferred  upon  local  superintendents  or  boards 
of  education."     Surely,  if  the  city  education  law  is  transferred  to  the  State 


224 

Education  Law,  the  provision  giving  the  powers  mentioned  will  remain 
there.  But  they  will  be  a  part  of  the  State  law  and  they  can  not  then  be 
changed  by  any  power  but  the  Legislature.  We  do  not  think  that  Doctor 
Draper  will  say  that  a  board  of  education  has  power  to  change  a  State  law. 
It  seems,  therefore,  that  the  control  by  the  city  school  authorities  will  be 
present  only  so  long  as  the  State  does  not  change  that  part  of  the  Educa- 
tion Law  which  was  formerly  part  of  the  city  charter,  that  it  will  extend 
only  to  the  bounds  set  by  the  city  law  as  it  stood  when  it  was  transferred, 
and  that  it  will  stop  at  the  point  where  the  city  school  authorities  would 
change  tne  law  regarding  their  schools. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  foregoing  that  we  had  good  ground  for  believ- 
ing that  Doctor  Draper  meant  that  the  State  should  control  the  schools. 
If  he  does  not  mean  this,  the  language  of  his  report  does  not  clearly  indi- 
cate it.  We  confess  that  his  letter  has  not  made  itself  entirely  clear  to  us, 
even  aiter  some  days  of  consideration.  We  have  not  tried  here  to  justify 
our  position  merely  for  the  sake  of  contention,  but  to  show  that  we  did  not 
assume  it  without  good  ground.  Doctor  Draper  seems  in  his  letter  of 
explanation  to  intend  his  proposition  to  mean  that  the  city  should  become 
a  school  district,  as  portions  of  the  rural  regions  are  school  districts,  and 
probably  intends  that  the  State  control  of  the  schools  should  be  that  which 
the  State  has  over  the  schools  in  a  rural  school  district.  Whether  this 
would  be  desirable  or  acceptable  is,  of  course,  debatable  and  would  require 
more  discussion  than  could  be  well  appended  to  this  comment  upon  Doctor 
Draper's  courteous  letter. 

Albany,  February  17,  19 12 
Editor,  Union  and  Advertiser 

Rochester,  N.  Y. 
Dear  sir  : 

I  have  your  editorial  comments  upon  my  letter  concerning  the 
proposition  to  transfer  education  statutes  from  the  city  charters  to 
the  Education  Law. 

You  seem  to  think  —  and  this  is  why  I  venture  to  write  again 
—  that  this  transfer  of  school  laws  from  the  charters  to  the  Edu- 
cation Law  would  in  some  hidden  way  change  the  substance  of 
the  statutes  or  shift  the  control  of  the  schools  from  local  to  State 
officers.  Let  me  assure  you  that  there  is  nothing  whatever  in 
that.  The  school  laws,  in  whatever  form  or  connection,  can  be 
made  or  changed  only  by  the  Legislature.  Moreover,  no  one  wishes 
such  changes.  Everybody  knows,  or  ought  to  know,  that  the 
more  intelligent  a  community  is,  and  the  more  aggressive  it  is  about 
having  the  best  schools,  the  more  the  state  educational  officials  are 
gratified.  And  no  one  can  doubt  that  the  more  local  energy 
there  is  about  schools,  the  better  the  schools  will  be.  State  over- 
sight   may    aid    local    interest    where    it    is    weak    or    ill-advised, 


225 

but  it  would  be  absurd  to  try  to  substitute  State  for  local  manage- 
ment in  popular  education.  No  community  having  really  high 
grade  schools  ever  complains  about  State  interference,  for  the 
double  reason  that  the  State  does  not  interfere  in  such  communi- 
ties, and  they  are  not  jealous  of  State  aid  or  criticism  but  glad  to 
have  them.  It  is  the  community  with  low  grade  schools  that  is 
disturbed  by  that  oversight  which  both  the  laws  and  sound  policy 
require  the  State  to  extend  over  it. 

My  contention  is  that  the  management  of  the  schools  of  a  city 
is  no  proper  or  legal  function  of  a  city  government;  that  a  city 
government  is  not  vested  with  this  function  and  is  not  chosen  with 
reference  to  it;  that  such  management  is  vested  in  an  organization 
specially  provided  for  and  chosen  for  the  purpose ;  that  the  schools 
of  all  the  cities  constitute  a  part  of  that  State  system  of  education 
which  the  Constitution  enjoins  and  which  all  the  people  cherish; 
and  that  therefore  all  the  statutes  relating  to  schools  may  more 
properly  be  incorporated  in  the  State  Education  Law  than  in  the 
city  charters. 

My  reason  for  urging  that  this  be  done  is  more  than  abstract 
or  academic:  it  is  that  the  schools  may  be  separated  as  far  as 
possible  from  municipal  politics ;  that  it  may  not  be  easy  for  those 
who  think  most  about  the  charters  and  municipal  affairs  to  revise 
the  school  laws  whenever  the  charters  are  revised;  and  that  the 
school  laws  may  be  modified  when  necessary  without  arousing 
those  who  think  of  city  business  more  than  of  schools. 

The  territory  of  every  city  is,  in  legal  and  administrative  contem- 
plation, only  a  big  school  district.  The  people  in  the  country  school 
districts  do  not  have  less  but  more  control  over  their  schools  than 
the  people  in  a  big  city.  Do  not  misunderstand  what  I  am  urging. 
I  am  for  the  people  of  a  city  having  all  the  control  over  the  schools 
in  their  city  that  their  intelligence  and  patriotism  will  dispose  them 
to  exercise.  The  only  consideration  to  be  regarded  is  the  uniform 
efficiency  of  the  State  system  of  education.  That  will  be  highest 
where  the  people  are  intelligent  enough  and  concerned  enough 
about  their  schools  to  pay  sharp  and  rational  attention  to  them. 
The  real  troubles  in  cities  grow  out  of  the  fact  that  the  people 
are  indifferent  or  are  so  numerous  that  they  can  not  meet  together 
and  settle  school  policies  and  choose  school  officers.  But  they 
should  come  as  near  managing  school  matters  as  they  can,  and  all 
the  schools  should  constitute  a  part  of  the  State  system  of  edu- 
cation and  be  managed  by  both  State  and  local  representatives  of 


226 

the  people  chosen  for  that  particular  purpose.    In  no  event  should 
the  schools  be  left  to  the  control  of  city  officers  and  councils  who 
have  no  special  knowledge  of  the  intricacies  of  school  administra- 
tion and  who  are  not  chosen  with  reference  to  that  duty. 
Very  sincerely  yours 

A.  S.  Draper 

Commissioner  of  Education 


ANCIENT  VERSUS  MODERN  LEARNING  IN 
FREE  SCHOOLS 

[227] 


ANCIENT  VERSUS  MODERN  LEARNING  IN  FREE 
SCHOOLS  1 
Mr  Toastmaster: 

It  is  a  greater  pleasure  than  you  may  think  to  break  bread  and 
mix  observations  with  the  alumni  of  Colgate  University,  because 
your  university  was  the  first  to  confer  upon  me  an  honorary 
degree.  It  was  a  surprise  indeed,  and  I  can  not  help  thinking  that 
it  must  have  required  courage,  twenty-three  years  ago,  to  hang 
your  reputation  for  caution  upon  so  uncertain  a  shoot. 

I  have  been  delighted  by  the  remarks  of  President  Bryan.  I 
knew  he  could  talk  well,  but  it  is  a  satisfaction  to  hear  him  tell  so 
confidently  of  the  prosperity  and  the  outlook  of  Colgate  University. 
To  confess  to  you  the  truth,  I  have  come  to  be  apprehensive  when 
up-state  college  presidents  come  to  Albany  and  make  midnight 
speeches  after  late  dinners.  This  winter  they  have  been  violating 
the  rules  of  the  game  and  saying  amusing  things  in  serious  ways, 
rather  than  serious  things  in  amusing  ways.  Your  great  neighbor 
of  Syracuse  University  did  so  recently,  and  the  other  evening  the 
scholarly  president  of  Hamilton  College,  your  "  dearest  foe,"  as 
Governor  Hughes  would  say,  did  the  same  thing.  Some  of  the 
very  great  brethren  need  the  fraternal  admonition  of  the  guild. 

President  Stryker  never  goes  around  the  corner  to  say  things. 
Bluntness  is  his  long  suit,  whatever  that  may  mean.  He  gives  no 
quarter  in  discussion.  He  loves  intellectual  combat.  Then  he 
must  have  a  "combatee."  So  he  invents  one.  He  exemplifies  his 
contention  that  Grecian  learning  is  the  fruitful  mother  of  imagina- 
tion. His  imagination  creates  adversaries  so  that  his  gladiatorial 
arm  may  hammer  Grecian  culture  into  them.  But  if  he  gives  no 
quarter,  neither  does  he  ask  any.  And  so  when  he  says  for  the 
twentieth  time  that  "the  heavy  hand  of  educational  authority  in 
this  State  is  set  against  the  classical  studies,"  he  will  be  glad  to 
see  a  hat  in  the  ring  and  may  at  least  appreciate  the  courage  that 
throws  it  there. 

There  can  be  no  such  thing  as  the  heavy  hand  of  educational 
authority  turned  against  the  classical  studies.  It  wouldn't  be 
heavy;  it  wouldn't  have  authority.  It  would  be  like  Lincoln's 
steamboat   with   a   big  whistle   and   a   little   boiler,   that   couldn't 


1  Remarks  at  Colgate  University   dinner,  at  the  Hampton    Hotel,  Albany, 
March  15,  1912. 

229 


230 

whistle  when  it  ran  and  couldn't  run  when  it  whistled.  The  hand 
of  all  authority  in  America  is  heavy  or  light  as  it  is  supported  by 
public  sentiment.  The  hand  of  educational  leadership  is  heavy 
or  light  as  it  is  upheld  by  educational  opinion.  There  is  no  opinion 
so  unfettered  as  educational  opinion.  It  is  so  jealous  of  its  free- 
dom that  it  sometimes  goes  astray.  But  it  never  supports  author- 
ity that  does  not  seek  aid  from  all  the  learning  of  the  world.  It 
resents  any  exclusion  of  any  knowledge.  It  would  ridicule  any 
pretended  educational  authority  that  did  not  recognize  the  influ- 
ence of  the  ancient  tongues  upon  modern  speech,  and  did  not  lay 
hold  of  whatever  there  was  in  ancient  civilizations  that  might 
enrich  the  civilizations  that  are  or  are  to  be. 

All  of  us  have  pride  in  the  college  that  has  held  aloft  the  lights 
of  classical  learning  in  Central  New  York  for  an  hundred  years. 
And  while  it  is  a  little  hard  to  have  our  minds  distracted  by  the 
implication  that  we  can  not  think  very  straight  or  speak  very  well, 
because  we  do  not  do  it  in  Greek,  when  we  are  trying  to  think 
of  nice  things  to  say  at  the  centennial  celebration  at  Hamilton  next 
summer,  still  we  shall  think  as  best  we  can  and  speak  with  genuine 
feeling  when  we  present  our  felicitations  to  a  college  that  has 
trained  so  many  great  teachers,  and  preachers,  and  leaders  of  men, 
and  that  seems  content  to  hold  to  the  plan  and  the  faith  by  which 
it  has  done  it. 

There  is  room  enough  for  such  a  college  among  all  the  educa- 
tional institutions  of  this  State.  It  is  only  a  question  as  to  whether 
those  who  love  her  most  think  that  it  is  good  college  policy  to 
adhere  to.  If  they  do,  I  shall  be  rather  glad  of  it,  and  whether 
they  do  or  not  there  is  no  one  who  will  not  wish  them  well.  But 
whatever  they  do,  no  authoritative  hand  is  against  the  ancient 
languages  in  that  or  any  other  school  of  the  State.  All  students 
who  want  them  must  have  them;  all  professions  or  vocations  that 
really  need  them  must  be  urged  to  have  them;  and  they  must  be 
distinctly  encouraged  for  their  historical,  cultural,  and  disciplinary 
value,  by  those  who  would  give  balance  and  finish  to  education. 

But  it  had  better  be  said,  and  with  all  plainness,  that  our  civili- 
zation is  no  longer  in  Greece,  or  Rome,  or  Gaul,  or  even  Britain; 
that  we  are  not  living  in  the  first,  the  tenth,  or  the  eighteenth 
century;  that  the  streams  of  learning  are  now  gathering  in  many 
high  places,  trickling  down  many  mountain  sides,  making  mighty 
rivers  and  boundless  seas,  and  sending  back  their  distilled  dews  to 
irrigate  and  fructify  the  intelligence  of  the  whole  world.     We  are 


231 

in  a  free  country  where  men  and  women  have  everything  to  study 
and  are  going  to  study  what  they  please.  It  is  the  business  of 
State  educational  authority  to  try  to  provide  them  with  whatever 
branches  of  study  they  will  accept  and  with  whatever  educational 
helps  will  uplift  the  vocations  which  they  are  to  fellow.  The 
State  may  aid  but  not  force  their  choice.  Our  education  unfolds 
rather  rationally.  There  is  a  higher  law  about  it  than  any  laid 
down  in  resolutions  of  faculties  and  educational  conventions.  The 
thing  will  work  its  way  out  if  all  kinds  of  work  have  an  even 
chance.  The  State  of  New  York  represents  so  many  people  and 
so  many  interests  that  it  is  not  free  to  do  what  a  college  on  the 
hill  at  Clinton  may  do  by  itself.  The  State  must  recognize  the 
diversity  of  learning,  the  differing  situations,  the  equal  rights  of 
all  learning  and  of  all  people.  Of  course  it  must  encourage  any 
study  that  cultures  people,  and  certainly  any  study  that  helps 
people  to  think  accurately,  as  the  study  of  the  classics  undoubtedly 
does ;  but  quite  as  clearly  it  must  encourage  study  that  leads  people 
to  work  skilfully  with  their  hands;  and  quite  as  certainly  it  must 
abstain  from  destroying  the  necessary  balance  between  the  em- 
ployments of  the  people,  from  making  misfits  in  life  work,  and 
from  lessening  the  productivity  and  upsetting  the  equilibrium  of 
the  State  itself. 

A  Greek  scholar  and  particularly  a  teacher  of  Greek,  like  every 
other  scholar  or  teacher,  is  likely  to  be  obsessed  by  the  subject  in 
which  he  is  expert.  That  is  his  purpose  and  business  in  life.  The 
State  encourages  him  to  make  the  most  of  his  subject,  but  the 
State  can  not  be  obsessed  by  his  subject  because  he  is.  Greek  is 
entitled  to  no  exclusive  privileges  in  American  education.  It  is  a 
liberal  education  to  be  an  accomplished  Greek  scholar,  but  one  no 
longer  has  to  be  a  Greek  scholar  to  possess  a  liberal  education. 
In  a  rapid  rise  followed  by  a  hardly  less  rapid  decline,  the  old 
Greeks  made  their  little  land  a  veritable  storehouse  of  art.  Their 
coins,  pottery,  sculpture,  and  structures  illustrate  an  amazing,  if 
narrow,  intellectual  development.  But  what  other  large  gifts  have 
they  made  to  our  modern  intellectual  estate? 

Has  it  been  in  literature,  or  philosophy,  or  oratory?  Not 
broadly  so;  a  few  good  specimens,  but  only  a  few,  have  been 
valued  highly,  and  with  justice.  Has  it  been  in  science?  No;  their 
savants  knew  less  of  chemistry,  and  of  physics,  and  of  the  heavenly 
bodies,  than  do  the  children  in  our  schools.  Has  it  been  in  music? 
No.    Has  it  been  in  the  drama?    Not  strongly;  we  have  adopted  a 


232 

few  plots  but  there  has  been  much  to  forget.  Has  it  been  in  words 
they  have  added  to  our  English  speech?  Some  will  claim  it,  but 
the  Saxon  and  Norman  trunk  is  bigger  and  stronger  and  nobler 
than  the  classical  sprigs  that  have  been  grafted  upon  it.  Has  it 
been  in  ennobling  sports,  in  manly  heroisms  for  human  rights? 
Not  overwhelmingly.  Has  it  been  in  exploration  and  expansion? 
No,  they  were  not  navigators,  and  when  they  expanded  a  little 
they  could  not  hold  on.  Did  they  inspire  religious  progress? 
They  worshipped  idols ;  their  religion,  if  it  may  be  called  a  religion, 
was  mere  superstitious  mysticism :  it  even  now  degrades  great 
empires.  Look  at  Russia  even  now  only  half  emancipated  from 
the  idolatry  of  the  ancient  Greeks.  When  Paul,  in  the  midst  of 
all  the  altars  they  had  set  up  to  hideous  and  brutal  gods  upon  Mars 
hill,  found  one  which  they  had  erected  to  an  "  unknown  god  "  in 
order  to  placate  some  monster  they  had  not  yet  discovered,  and 
declared  him  unto  the  Athenians,  he  announced  a  religion  that  has 
done  more  for  intellectual  as  well  as  moral  progress  than  any  of 
those  old  Greeks,  with  all  their  superstition  and  imagination,  were 
ever  able  to  think  of.  Has  it  been  in  statecraft,  in  upbuilding 
self-government,  in  enlarging  political  freedom  in  the  world?  No, 
one-fifth  of  them  owned  the  other  four-fifths;  they  had  no  grasp 
upon  liberty  and  their  "  republics  "  were  nothing  but  a  name ;  the 
people  who  lived  in  the  forests  and  upon  the  waters  of  the  far 
away  northlands  and  compounded  a  new  nation  in  Britain  a 
thousand  years  later  and  a  thousand  years  ago,  and  then  another 
new  nation  in  America  in  modern  times,  opened  the  highways  of 
political  self-government  and  of  human  and  social  progress  with- 
out any  help  from  the  peoples,  even  though  they  had  more  polite 
accomplishments,  who  before  the  dawn  of  the  Christian  era  dwelt 
upon  the  shores  of  the  blue  Mediterranean  sea. 

Modern  civilization  owes  more  to  the  Romans  than  to  the 
Greeks.  They  were  travelers  and  they  left  landmarks,  but  the  fact 
remains  that  the  ideals  of  the  best  of  them  and  the  military  power 
of  all  of  them  had  to  be  overthrown  before  the  road  was  open  for 
the  advance  of  modern  freedom  and  intelligence. 

In  these  days  of  prolific  scholarship  and  of  much  publication 
there  is,  moreover,  no  such  ignorance  of  the  ancients  as  classical 
scholars  very  commonly  assume.  There  is  no  such  paralysis  of 
thinking  and  of  expression  among  those  who  are  educated  in  the 
modern  tongues  alone,  as  classical  experts  seem  to  think  that  they 
perceive.     Nor  is  there  such  exclusive  disciplinary  value  in  Greek 


233 

and  Latin  over  more  modern  phases  of  serious  study,  as  a  few 
would  have  us  think.  It  is  saying  nothing  against  classical  scholar- 
ship to  declare  that  the  world  has  reached  a  stage  of  intellectual 
productivity  when  familiarity  with  ancient  tongues  —  to  say  noth- 
ing of  a  slight  acquaintance  soon  forgotten  —  is  no  longer  the 
sum  of  all  culture  or  the  substance  of  all  scholarship. 

The  ancient  world  was  all  on  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean: 
it  was  imprisoned,  very  ignorant,  and  withal  very  content.  The 
modern  world  knows  no  geographical  limits  and  it  is  free,  aspiring, 
and  potential.  Christianity  has  worked  the  change.  One  may 
hesitate  about  some  of  the  beliefs  of  its  disciples,  but  no  one  with 
a  true  heart  can  dissent  from  its  spirit,  and  no  one  with  an  intelli- 
gent mind  can  deny  its  results.  It  broke  its  way  over  Europe  and 
penetrated  Asia.  It  was  a  thing  of  faith  and  therefore  aggressive 
and  unyielding.  It  forced  revolutions  and  reformations  and  it 
started  crusades  and  migrations.  It  discovered  America.  It  estab- 
lished new  nations,  freer  forms  of  government,  and  larger  human 
opportunity,  in  the  Old  World  and  the  New.  That  in  turn  opened 
the  roads  for  all  phases  of  intellectual  progress.  Those  roads 
have  been  and  are  being  well  traveled.  There  is  now  a  red,  white 
and  blue  flag  at  each  of  the  extremities  of  the  earth.  Three  years 
ago  a  daring  American  sailor  planted  the  flag  of  freedom  and  of 
opportunity  at  the  north  pole.  Three  months  ago  a  gallant  son 
of  the  Vikings  planted  the  beautiful  flag  of  Norway  with  the 
Christian's  cross  upon  it  at  the  south  pole.  The  physical  world 
has  been  conquered:  now  it  will  be  studied.  Modern  schools  have 
made  astounding  discoveries  in  the  occult  sciences  which  only  show 
how  little  the  secrets  of  that  world  are  known;  those  secrets  are 
going  to  be  intensively  studied.  The  knowledge  so  obtained  is 
going  to  be  applied  to  the  convenience  which  will  further  uplift  the 
life  of  the  people:  that  exacts  study.  The  worlds  of  thought  and 
feeling  are  to  be  much  further  explored ;  literature  and  philosophy 
are  yet  to  have  a  more  perfect  flower  and  a  more  nourishing  fruit- 
age; the  schools  will  inspire  the  genius  of  some  of  their  boys  and 
girls  to  do  it.  Family  life,  community  responsibilities,  and  the 
scope  and  functions  of  government  are  all  to  be  more  thoroughly 
studied  that  they  may  be  better  adjusted.  The  soil  we  live  on,  the 
mountains  and  rivers  and  seas,  the  animals  —  tamed  and  wild  — 
the  physical  life  of  the  people,  the  care  and  use  of  the  world's  re- 
sources, the  natural  rights  of  men,  the  expansion  of  knowledge,  the 
betterment  of  feelings,  the  processes  which  will  enable  and  induce 
people  to  make  the  most  of  themselves,  demand  the  utmost  serious- 


234 

ness  of  study.  There  are  no  limits  to  the  phases  of  modern  study, 
and  there  are  going  to  be  no  ancient  limitations  upon  the  freedom 
of  the  New  York  schools. 

In  other  words,  the  schools  are  so  full  of  subjects  that  are  of 
both  cultural  and  potential  value  that  the  right  to  exclusive  worth 
will  no  longer  be  conceded  to  Greek  and  Latin;  they  will  be  val- 
idated in  experience  and  will  have  to  depend  upon  their  worth  to 
the  world.  There  will  be  no  exclusion  of  studies  one  way  or  the 
other.  Students  and  schools  will  have  the  opportunity  to  choose. 
There  will  not  be  many  more  preferential  tariffs  in  academics,  not 
much  more  "  thus  saith  the  Lord  "  about  what  youngsters  out  of 
the  elementary  schools  must  study.  Colleges  will  provide  what 
they  have  the  means  to  supply;  will  demand  what  they  think  well 
from  freshmen ;  will  exact  such  study  for  academic  degrees  as  they 
have  the  courage  to  enforce.  Students  will  take  it,  or  let  it  alone 
and  go  elsewhere  for  what  they  want.  And  uniformity  between 
colleges  is  neither  possible  nor  desirable.  Students  will  be  credited 
with  what  they  do,  and  institutions  will  be  judged  by  what  they 
are.  And  the  worth  of  graduates  and  of  schools  will  be  estab- 
lished, not  on  the  basis  of  so  many  parts  of  Greek  or  chemistry  or 
logic,  but  because  they  have  shown  so  much  of  character,  and 
power,  and  accomplishment. 

The  trend  is  not  for  aristocracy  but  democracy  in  education. 
Students  who  go  to  college  are  not  out  of  the  same  manner  of 
homes  or  the  same  kind  of  schools  as  those  who  went  to  college 
fifty  years  ago.  Their  number  has  increased  many  fold.  There 
are  no  longer  any  rungs  missing  from  the  educational  ladder  in 
America,  as  is  the  case  in  other  lands.  And  that  ladder  not  only 
stands  upon  the  ground  but  its  head  is  among  the  stars.  All  have 
equal  rights  upon  it.  That  fact  is  enlarging,  and  multiplying,  and 
diversifying,  and  quickening  our  colleges.  It  is  this  very  thing 
that  is  giving  us  the  most  comprehensive  and  efficient,  the  most 
persuasive  and  adaptable,  system  of  education  in  the  world. 

It  is  the  business  of  every  factor  in  the  State's  system  of  educa- 
tion to  give  every  aid  it  can  to  every  man  and  wo-^an,  and  to  the 
State  itself.  That  will  be  done  best  by  schools  developing  individ- 
uality, if  they  cooperate.  Cooperation  is  as  vital  to  each  school  as 
to  the  educational  system.  Meanness  defeats  itself  in  education 
even  more  than  in  other  things.  The  institution  that  is  strong  in 
itself  will  be  yet  stronger  when  it  helps  other  institutions  of  what- 
ever grade,  and  all  good  interests  of  whatever  kind.  Universities 
and  colleges  culture  people  by  the  use  of  books,  but  quite  as  much 


235 

by  training  them  in  doing;  and  by  training  them  for  commercial 
and  manual  employments  as  well  as  for  professional  vocations. 

And  it  is  the  interest  of  the  State  and  the  function  of  State  edu- 
cational authority  to  aim  at  a  fair  equilibrium  in  the  educational 
activities  of  the  people.  The  State  is  not  concerned  about  idlers 
whom  it  does  not  have  to  support,  no  matter  how  much  they  pos- 
sess or  what  they  know.  It  is  concerned  about  some  balance  of 
vocations  among  its  workers,  about  the  work  of  all  kinds  being 
done  that  it  needs  to  have  done,  and  about  its  workers  being  fitted 
for  the  work  that  they  can  do  best.  Whatever  makes  the  most  of 
the  world's  work  makes  the  most  of  the  world's  men  and  women. 
Workers  are  about  all  who  count  and  workers  of  every  class  do 
count.  It  is  wide  of  the  mark  to  say  that  men  and  women  are  of 
more  account  than  wood  and  iron.  Of  course  they  are,  the  poor 
as  well  as  the  rich,  the  workers  more  than  the  idlers.  We  are  for 
culturing  all  of  them.  People  are  cultured  by  their  self-activities. 
The  only  way  to  make  more  of  men  and  women  is  by  putting  all 
possible  knowledge  and  all  practicable  intelligence  into  what  they 
do.  Then  the  State  is  going  to  have  every  conceivable  kind  of 
school,  even  agricultural  schools  and  schools  that  have  been  sneer- 
ingly  called  "  fine  blacksmiths'  shops."  There  will  be  more  rather 
than  fewer  engineering  colleges,  and  more  rather  than  less  applica- 
tions of  the  sciences  to  the  industries  in  both  the  secondary  and 
primary  schools.  The  educational  system  will  have  to  teach  men 
and  women  how  to  make  more  money  in  their  shops  and  on  their 
lands,  and  how  to  make  homes  and  institutions  that  may  easily 
make  more  of  men  and  women.  Everything  will  not  have  to  be 
taught  everywhere ;  nor  will  everyone  have  to  engage  in  every- 
thing; but  one  who  can  not  enter  into  something  that  demands 
energy  and  have  sympathy  with  everything  that  is  good  will  be  in 
danger  of  going  to  seed  in  American  education. 

Let  Hamilton  College  follow  her  own  judgment,  and  every  man 
of  the  schools,  whether  his  work  and  his  thought  accord  with  her 
plans  and  policies  or  not,  will  admire  her  courage  and  wish  her 
well.  But  let  us  work  together  a  little  more  closely  and  under- 
standingly.  Let  us  give  over  thinking  that  the  State,  any  authority 
or  any  influential  factor  in  it,  is  against  this  or  that  in  education. 
All  will  have  to  live  and  help  others  to  live  to  the  best  advantage. 
The  State  is  for  freedom,  for  the  equal  chance  for  everyone  in 
education ;  it  is  for  every  study ;  and  for  the  survival  of  what  does 
the  most  for  the  character,  intelligence,  and  thrift  of  its  people, 
and  therefore  for  the  stability  and  advancement  of  the  State  itself. 


THE  PLACE  OF  SARATOGA  IN  THE  REVO- 
LUTIONARY WAR 

[237] 


THE  PLACE  OF  SARATOGA  IN  THE  REVOLUTIONARY 

WAR1 

The  foreplanning  which  arranged  that  this  meeting  of  the  New 
York  State  Historical  Society  should  be  held  at  Saratoga,  and 
provided  for  the  discussion  of  all  phases  of  that  New  York  cam- 
paign in  the  Revolution  which  culminated  at  this  place  with  such 
decisive  triumph  for  the  patriot  arms,  was  patriotically  and  thought- 
fully done.  In  thus  illustrating  the  doings  of  our  fathers  and  por- 
traying to  some  extent  the  cost  of  our  institutions,  we  are  doing 
quite  as  much  as  we  can  do  in  any  other  way  to  help  on  popular 
education.  It  is  really  a  very  great  pleasure,  a  sort  of  patriotic 
holiday,  to  turn  from  the  routine  and  details  of  the  Education  De- 
partment, and  revel  in  that  unparalleled  and  inspiring  inheritance 
which  we  of  the  State  of  New  York  have  in  both  the  civic  and 
military  history  of  the  American  Revolution. 

The  preliminary  situations,  the  strategy,  the  fighting,  the 
heroisms,  the  chivalry,  and  the  tremendous  results  of  the  battle  of 
Saratoga,  are  fascinating  to  all  students  of  history,  and  enticingly 
so  to  all  lovers  of  America.  My  pencil  would  skip  across  the  pages 
if  it  were  to  trace  Britain's  comprehensive  plan  of  campaign  and 
the  vehement  opposition  of  the  patriots ;  if  it  were  to  follow  the 
deliberate,  haughty,  grim  advance  of  Burgoyne  from  the  North ; 
if  it  were  to  chuckle  over  the  failure  of  Sir  Henry  Clinton  to  come 
up  from  the  lower  Hudson;  if  it  were  to  glory  over  the  scattering 
of  St  Leger  and  his  Indians  by  those  gallant  old  Dutchmen,  Nich- 
olas Herkimer  and  Peter  Gansevoort,  with  a  handful  of  regulars, 
supported  by  the  doughty  farmers  of  the  Mohawk  valley ;  and  if  it 
were  to  celebrate  the  fast  gathering  of  more  fanners,  the  gallant 
earnestness  of  other  regular  troops,  the  untiring  sagacity  and  the 
sure-shooting  of  Daniel  Morgan  and  his  riflemen,  the  voluntary 
and  perhaps  the  frenzied  soldiership  of  Benedict  Arnold,  and  the 
overgenerous  moral  support  and  magnanimous  chivalry  of  Philip 
Schuyler,  which,  taken  together,  and  in  spite  of  the  meanness  and 
cowardly  stupidity  of  Gates,  forced,  for  the  first  time,  a  British 
army  to  ground  its  arms  to  Continental  troops. 

But  the  affair  to  which  I  am  invited  to  make  a  contribution  is  no 


1  Address  before  the  New  York  State  Historical  Association  at  its  annual 
meeting,    September    1912. 

239 


240 

such  hilarious  revel.  My  task  here  is  to  measure  the  importance  of 
Saratoga  in  the  American  Revolution  and  therefore  in  the  revolu- 
tionary history  of  the  world.  No  one  will  doubt  the  difficulties  of 
doing  that  in  a  brief  paper,  for  it  can  not  be  done  without  a  serious 
study  of  all  the  leading  men  and  the  large  events  associated  with 
the  Revolution,  in  the  fields  of  politics,  of  diplomacy,  and  of  battle, 
or  without  a  good  understanding  of  the  subsequent  influence  of 
American  independence  upon  the  progress  of  constitutional  free- 
dom in  America  and  throughout  the  world.  But  happily  we  may 
avoid  details  and  we  may  ignore  the  common  disputes  over  minor 
facts.  We  are  to  discern  the  main  events  upon  a  widespread  field 
and  see  which  looms  the  largest  in  forcing  culminations  and  in  cre- 
ating law  and  security  and  opportunity  in  the  world. 

A  moment  or  two  for  a  foreword  will  not  be  misspent.  Doubt- 
less it  was  settled  when  the  stars  were  hung  in  the  heavens  that  a 
new  and  independent  nation  would  be  compounded  in  America, 
but  it  had  to  come  about  through  thinking  and  doing,  by  occur- 
rences and  events.  And  it  is  hard  to  realize  the  differences  and 
dissensions  among  men  and  women  and  the  minor  happenings  that 
give  trend  to  vital  history,  when  it  is  set  forth  so  glibly  on  a  few 
pages  in  a  book. 

The  English  masses  knew  little  and  cared  little  about  men  and 
events  in  America.  The  colonists  were  not  at  all  united  in  wishing 
independence.  The  common  people  of  England  and  America  were 
homogeneous  enough.  It  is  quite  true  that  there  had  been  much 
contention  and  not  a  little  fighting  among  the  nations  of  the  Old 
World  about  their  possessions  in  the  New  World,  and  there  had 
been  more  or  less  maneuvering  about  governmental  relations  and 
the  royal  prerogatives,  and  there  had  been  abuses  which  had  stirred 
protests,  but  nothing  occurred  to  make  an  armed  resistance  inevi- 
table until  the  King  put  away  the  judicial  and  patriarchal  attitude 
of  the  crown,  became  an  unscrupulous  partisan,  manipulated  Par- 
liament, and  toyed  with  the  rights  and  freedoms  of  English  subjects 
without  the  actual  knowledge  of  the  English  people. 

Only  a  half  dozen  years  before  the  accession  of  George  the 
Third  the  northern  colonies  had  held  a  convention  at  Albany  to 
form  a  union  to  fight  the  Indians  without  any  thought  of  revolu- 
tionary issues  with  the  mother  country ;  and  only  a  year  or  two  be- 
fore his  accession  Yankee  continentals  and  English  grenadiers  and 
Scotch  highlanders  had  marched  and  died  together  to  make  sure 
that  the  British  power  and  the  great  things  that  it  stood  for  should 


241 

long  be  dominant  in  the  government  of  America.  In  a  half  dozen 
years  after  he  became  king,  this  unscrupulous,  half -educated  poli- 
tician had  stirred  a  revolt  in  America  which  compelled  his  complete 
recession,  and  in  fifteen  years,  learning  nothing  by  experience,  he 
had  forced  a  revolution  which  recession  could  not  placate  and  arms 
could  /not  suppress. 

In  his  long  reign  of  sixty  years  this  head  of  the  English  Church 
and  boss  in  English  politics  had  plenty  of  time  to  go  stark  mad, 
and  the  subtle  processes  which  brought  the  noble  Empire  nearer  to 
overthrow  than  she  ever  was  before  or  ever  has  been  since  were 
amply  sufficient  to  make  him  so.  But  until  long  after  his  throne 
had  lost  its  noblest  possessions,  his  mind  was  as  keen  and  method- 
ical as  his  purposes  were  grovelling  and  insatiable.  Determined  that 
the  saying  of  his  father  that  "  Ministers  are  the  re<al  kings  "  should 
no  longer  be  true,  and  intent  upon  ruling  as  wrell  as  reigning,  he 
drove  the  strong  men,  including  the  great  Chatham,  from  his  cab- 
inet and  assumed  the  personal  direction  of  the  affairs  of  his  king- 
dom. Ignorant  of  the  mighty  undercurrents  of  English  history  and 
the  stubborn  virtues  of  his  people,  his  conception  of  government 
could  go  no  further  than  the  dominance  of  a  clique,  and  his  meth- 
ods for  assuring  that  could  toot  rise  above  bribing  the  vices  which 
create  the  only  vital  needs  for  exercising  the  forces  of  government 
at  all.  He  bought  boroughs;  was  up  at  daybreak  to  scan  the  tally 
sheets  of  the  votes  in  Parliament  on  the  night  before ;  and  carried 
his  ends  by  favor,  patronage,  and  money.  And  the  ends  he  carried 
forced  the  dismemberment  of  his  kingdom.  Lecky  has  said  that  the 
course  of  George  the  Third,  during  the  latter  part  of  the  American 
war  "  was  as  criminal  as  the  acts  which  brought  Charles  the  First 
to  the  scaffold." 

His  ends  were  certainly  idle  and  his  methods  ran  amuck  in 
America.  The  English  colonies  in  New  England  were  peopled  by  as 
true  Englishmen  as  England  ever  had.  They  had  come  from 
the  northeastern  counties  where  faith  was  refined  by  persecu- 
tions .and  martyrs  grew  in  the  natural  order.  The  Dutch  of  New 
York  had  inherited  somewhat  less  severe  views  of  life,  rather 
more  aptness  at  commercial  progress,  and  just  as  hardy  character, 
with  quite  as  strong  a  love  for  liberty  and  for  learning,  from  a 
people  who,  through  valorous  experiences,  had  developed  these 
qualities  in  preeminent  degree.  Hardly  less  may  be  said  of  all  the 
other  peoples  in  the  thirteen  colonies  of  Great  Britain  in  America. 
Of  course  there  were  good  and  bad,  learned  and  unlearned,  indus- 


242 

trious  and  shiftless,  among  these  people,  but,  all  in  all,  they  were 
the  most  homogeneous,  unselfish,  and  aspiring  believers  in  God  and 
lovers  of  liberty  in  the  world.  Life  in  the  remote  wilderness, 
encompassed  by  dangerous  beasts  and  savage  men,  had  given  edge 
and  point  to  the  great  attributes  they  brought  across  the  sea.  The 
great  body  of  them  met  all  the  demands  of  the  new  manner  of  life 
with  unsurpassed  acuteness,  and  their  exceptional  men  responded 
to  the  highest  demands  of  intellectual,  civic,  ajnd  military  leadership 
with  genuineness,  adroitness  and  forcefulness  that  have  surprised 
the  great  men  of  the  world.  There  was  hardly  a  man  among  them 
who  could  not  manage  a  boat,  test  all  the  qualities  of  a  horse,  or  get 
the  utmost  out  of  the  possibilities  of  a  rifle,  and  when  it  came  to 
statecraft  and  diplomacy,  their  leaders  showed  that  there  was 
nothing  wanting.  And  not  I  alone  but  the  leading  English  writers 
of  English  history  say  that  these  people  saved  English  freedom 
against  this  English  king. 

When  he  and  his  clique  pushed  their  demands  and  asserted  their 
control  across  the  lines  that  had  been  established  in  the  great  char- 
ters of  English  liberty,  it  was  natural  that  the  Englishmen  in  New 
England  at  the  north  should  be  the  quickest  to  resent  and  the  first 
to  resist.  They  did  it  with  remarkable  unanimity  of  sentiment  and 
surprising  energy  of  action.  Of  course  the  King  had  his  adherents 
in  America  as  well  as  in  England,  and  more  of  them  than  we  now 
commonly  think,  but  there  was  no  such  division  into  parties,  no 
such  fooling  or  debauching  of  so  many  people  as  in  England.  Of 
course  the  middle  and  the  southern  colonies  had  their  own  peculiar- 
ities and  their  own  interests  to  influence  their  courses.  Of  course 
this  and  that  people  were  quickened  most  by  the  special  consider- 
ations that  appealed  very  directly  to  them ;  of  course  the  people  of 
a  region  responded  most  completely  to  a  danger  that  came  directly 
to  their  doors ;  of  course  in  their  weariness,  and  their  poverty,  and 
their  exhaustion,  they  relaxed  when  the  menace  recoiled  or  the  im- 
mediate campaign  was  over ;  and  of  course  the  doings  and  even 
the  honor  of  an  inexperienced  Confederation  fell  into  confusion; 
but  above  it  all  looms  the  great  fact  that  they  played  both  a  waiting 
and  a  fighting  game  so  adroitly  and  so  valorously  that  British  armies 
had  to  withdraw,  independence  had  to  be  admitted,  and  the  English 
government  itself  had  to  be  radically  recast.  And  the  great  turning 
point  of  it  all  was  right  here  at  Saratoga. 

From  a  strictly  military  point  of  view  nothing  so  important  hap- 
pened in  the  long  and  slow  course  of  the  Revolution  as  the  sur- 
render of  Burgoyne's  army.     The  significance  which  it  had  in  the 


243 

British  mind  is  clear  enough  when  one  remembers  that  the  head 
and  front  of  the  American  revolt  seemed  to  be  in  New  England 
and  New  York;  that  if  this  great  northern  revolution  could  be 
quelled  the  rest  would  appear  easy;  that  the  old  warpath  of  the 
Indians  and  of  the  English  and  French,  along  the  Hudson  river, 
and  Lake  Champlain,  was  the  natural,  short,  level,  and  easy  chan- 
nel of  communication  between  the  British  army  and  navy  at  New 
York  City  and  the  loyal  English  colonies  in  Canada.  It  is  particu- 
larly significant  when  one  sees  the  careful  and  comprehensive  pre- 
liminary arrangements  for  the  campaign  by  which  three  armies 
were  to  converge  at  Albany,  scattering  death  and  destruction  along 
the  roads,  and  leaving  no  doubt  of  ending  all  resistance  by  the 
time  their  forces  came  together  and  crushed  their  enemy  in  the  vor- 
tex. It  was  a  great  plan  and  it  was  to  be  executed  by  veteran 
troops  with  plenty  of  Hessian  and  Indian  allies  led  by  the  best  offi- 
cers sent  to  America  in  the  course  of  the  war.  Burgoyne  himself 
was  a  braggart,  but  he  was  no  mere  braggart.  On  his  way  he  took 
Fort  Ticonderoga  and  then  Fort  Edward,  and  came  on  boasting 
that  "  Britons  never  retreat."  He  found  that  when  he  wanted  to 
retreat  he  couldn't,  but  that  does  not  overthrow  the  fact  that  that 
army  was  the  most  important  one  sent  upon  the  most  vital  mission 
of  any  English  army  in  the  Revolution,  and  he  was  in  command  of 
it  because  he  was  the  most  pompous,  dogged,  vigorous  and  ambi- 
tious soldier  in  the  English  service.  That  army  was  overwhelmed 
because  it  had  to  be.  The  Yankees  were  not  always  succesful,  but 
they  could  be  when  they  had  to  be.  Saratoga  proved  it.  Indi- 
vidual or  incidental  details  like  Bennington,  Oriskany,  the  dastardly 
flunk  of  Clinton,  were  fine  contributions  to  the  splendid  end,  but 
notwithstanding  them  the  end  might  have  been  otherwise.  The 
great  issue  had  to  be  made  here  and  the  great  result  had  to  be 
gained  right  here.  Saratoga  itself  was  as  vital  to  the  Union  in  the 
Revolution  as  Gettysburg  was  in  the  Civil  War.  If  the  Confed- 
eracy could  force  a  battle  in  Pennsylvania  and  triumph,  there  was 
no  hope.  If  the  English  could  make  such  plans  in  New  York  and 
succeed,  there  was  no  hope.  Saratoga  and  Gettysburg  both  had 
to  be. 

One  will  never  understand  the  progress  of  the  Revolution  unless 
he  realizes  the  attitudes  and  theories  of  the  colonial  statesmen  and 
military  leaders.  The  loyalists  had  more  men  and  greater  resources 
and  technically  the  more  experienced  soldiers.  The  patriots  had 
the  whole  country,  were  more  accustomed  to  warfare  in  the  woods, 
and  were  able  and  willing  to  wait  for  battles  on  their  own  grounds 


244 

and  at  their  own  times.  The  British  were  three  thousand  miles 
from  home,  across  a  rough  sea,  without  steam,  disappointed  in  their 
American  support,  cooped  up  in  the  cities  and  camps,  and  having 
on  their  shoulders  the  burden  of  offensive  operations.  The  Yan- 
kees were  a  singularly  aggravating  people  to  professional  soldiers. 
They  were  at  home,  could  and  did  go  about  their  store-keeping, 
their  milling,  and  their  farming,  between  the  British  interruptions, 
and  if  neccessary  could  play  the  game  a  thousand  years.  They 
could  evacuate  a  town  and,  in  every  instance  except  the  deplorable 
mistake  of  General  Clinton  at  Charleston,  they  did  unless  it  was 
clearly  worth  while  not  to  do  so ;  they  could  retreat  and  maneuver 
with  equanimity  until  the  time  and  the  place  for  retribution  came 
to  them.  Old  Sam  Adams  had  it  in  mind  when,  after  Bunker  Hill, 
he  said  they  had  more  hills  to  sell  to  the  British  at  the  same  price, 
and  General  Greene  was  thinking  of  it  when  he  said  that  while  the 
Yankees  had  the  sovereignty  of  the  country,  the  British  sovereignty 
never  extended  beyond  their  own  out-sentinels.  But  the  New  York 
campaign,  and  particularly  the  capitulation  at  Saratoga,  proved  that 
the  Colonials  could  do  a  thing  when  they  had  to,  and  the  twenty 
thousand  men  they  gathered  here  gave  notice,  writ  large,  that  in 
the  end  their  triumph  would  be  complete. 

The  loss  of  men  and  munitions  of  war  was  of  itself  a  serious 
British  loss.  The  campaign  had  certainly  annulled  the  efficiency 
of  no  less  than  ten  thousand  men.  And  British  grenadiers  had 
money  value  so  far  from  home ;  the  Hessians  and  Brunswickers  had 
cost  them  a  vast  deal  of  good  money;  and  they  had  paid  dearly, 
too,  for  the  Indians,  who,  keener  than  the  whites  and  not  caring 
whether  it  was  to  be  a  "  capitulation  "  or  a  "  convention,"  had  not 
stayed  to  see  it  out.  Before  the  capitulation  the  patriots  had  killed, 
wounded  or  captured  eighteen  hundred  men.  The  Canadians  and 
local  Tories  followed  the  example  of  the  Indians  in  skulking  off 
through  the  woods.  Fifty-eight  hundred  were  included  in  the 
terms  of  the  convention.  The  Yankee  farmers  did  not  care  for 
uniforms  and  they  disliked  drill,  but  they  were  very  expert  at  kill- 
ing in  their  everyday  clothes.  Men  who  could  shoot  a  deer  running 
in  the  woods  or  over  the  hills  had  no  trouble  in  slaughtering  the 
draft  horses  of  the  artillery  or  the  mounts  of  the  general  officers. 
The  loss  of  British  officers  of  distinction  at  Saratoga  is  surprising. 
It  is  said  that  six  members  of  Parliament  were  among  the  slain. 
Of  twenty  English  officers  hit  by  bullets  at  Freeman's  farm,  ten 
were  shot  dead.     The  stores  captured  amounted  to  five  thousand 


245 

muskets,  seventy  thousand  rounds  of  ball  cartridges,  four  hundred 
sets  of  harness,  and  the  finest  train  of  brass  artillery  that  had  then 
been  made.  And  their  cannon  and  small  arms  and  stores  were  pre- 
cisely what  the  Yankees  needed.  But  the  real  point  of  the  British 
loss  was  in  the  loss  of  prestige.  At  other  times  the  issue  had  been 
decisive  or  might  be  clouded,  but  there  was  no  chance  for  that  here. 
In  strategy,  in  maneuvering,  in  flanking,  in  straight  fighting  center 
to  center  and  man  to  man,  upon  the  most  vital  field  and  thorough- 
fare that  had  been  or  could  be  in  the  course  of  the  war,  they  had 
had  to  lay  down  their  arms  and  ask  for  terms.  It  overthrew  any 
reasonable  expectation  that  it  would  be  different  at  any  other  time. 
And  in  fact  it  did  save  New  York  and  New  England  from  fur- 
ther fighting  north  and  east  of  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson  through 
all  the  after  days  in  the  slow  and  aggravating  war.  Of  course 
there  was  plenty  of  fighting  and  no  end  of  suffering  in  the  patriot 
cause  for  five  long  years  thereafter,  but  neither  before  nor  after 
was  there  any  such  strategic  campaign,  with  so  many  men,  so  much 
dependent,  such  testing  of  soldiership,  and  ending  in  such  complete 
disaster  to  British  arms,  and  such  utter  humiliation  to  the  British 
spirit,  as  in  the  New  York  campaign  which  had  its  far-reaching 
culmination  at  Saratoga.  It  was  enough  to  signify  to  as  honest  a 
people  as  the  English  were,  if  they  had  been  permitted  to  know  the 
facts,  that  the  war  should  have  ended  then  and  there. 

But  the  Revolution  grew  out  of  English  politics,  and  although  it 
had  to  go  on  because  the  necessities  of  English  politics  refused  to 
accept  a  disaster  to  the  army  which  would  be  an  equivalent  disaster 
to  the  Tory  party,  to  the  King's  cabinet,  and  to  the  King  himself, 
yet  Saratoga  was  immediately  reflected  in  the  parliamentary  de- 
bates, and  encompassed  the  empire  with  the  gravest  perils  that 
staunch  structure  has  ever  been  called  upon  to  withstand. 

The  news  of  Saratoga  reached  the  English  government  about  the 
first  of  December,  being  six  weeks  on  the  way.  The  parliamentary 
discussion  of  the  American  question  had  all  along  been  behind 
closed  doors  and  studiously  kept  from  the  public,  and  it  was  at- 
tempted to  keep  even  the  hard  news  of  the  disaster  to  Burgoyne 
from  Parliament  itself.  But  there  were  giants  in  the  opposition 
who  were  entirely  equal  to  larger  tasks  than  making  the  House  of 
Commons  open  its  doors  to  the  people  or  compelling  cabinet  min- 
isters to  admit  a  truth  so  momentous.  The  slowly  rising  tide  of 
popular  discontent  helped  to  force  the  doors,  and  the  apprehen- 
sion which  had  been  aroused  by  Burke's  foretelling  of  the  worst, 


246 

doubled  the  opposition  which  supported  his  little  party  in  com- 
pelling the  disclosure  of  the  facts.  When  Colonel  Barre  demanded 
that  the  Secretary  for  American  Affairs  inform  the  House  what 
had  become  of  General  Burgoyne  and  his  army,  it  was  admitted 
that  they  had  all  been  made  prisoners  but  it  was  coolly  urged  that 
the  House  should  suspend  judgment.  But  such  news  as  that  was 
not  conducive  to  a  suspension  of  the  judgment  of  the  English 
Commons,  and  amid  much  disorder  an  acrimonious  debate  ensued. 
Barre,  who  had  a  soldierly  record  that  was  brilliant  and  a  sol- 
dierly opinion  that  was  of  weight,  charged  the  disaster  upon  the 
minister,  Germain,  rather  than  upon  Burgoyne,  and  asserted  that 
the  whole  plan  for  the  invasion  of  New  York  had  been  condemned 
in  advance  by  every  soldier  in  the  kingdom  as  "  unworthy  of  a 
British  war  minister  and  too  absurd  for  an  Indian  chief."  The 
situation  was  so  tense  and  the  talk  so  hot  that  Burke  called  Lord 
Wedderburne,  the  Solicitor  General,  out  to  a  fist  fight  or  something 
worse,  and  Fox  demanded  that  members  of  the  cabinet  should  not 
only  vacate  their  places  but  also  be  tried  for  criminal  neglect. 
The  government  was  arraigned  for  worse  than  the  stupid  planning 
of  a  British  campaign  and  the  heartless  neglect  of  a  British  army 
that  had  been  sent  upon  a  vital  mission  into  untold  perils.  Old 
soldiers  and  sailors  who  had  led  the  forces  of  the  kingdom  to 
victories  on  land  and  sea  minced  no  words  in  laying  bare  the  unfit 
condition  to  which  incapable  and  corrupt  administration  had 
brought  the  army  and  navy,  and  foretold  early  wars  with  more 
powerful  enemies  nearer  home,  which  might  repeat,  upon  British 
soil,  the  story  of  Saratoga,  unless  the  bootless  quarrel  with  the 
colonies  was  speedily  ended  and  peace  with  America  should  be 
immediately  concluded.  With  the  finest  irony  and  with  withering 
scorn  the  government  was  pilloried  for  hiring  mercenaries  to  help 
England  make  war  upon  English  citizens  in  opposition  to  the  law 
of  the  Empire  and  to  the  law  of  nations,  and  for  holding  out  all 
that  was  opposed  to  English  freedom  to  savage  Indians  who  would 
burn  the  homes  and  scalp  the  wives  and  children  of  British 
subjects. 

So  Saratoga  appealed  to  the  pride  and  indignation,  even  to  the 
conscience  and  apprehension,  of  the  British  nation,  by  the  tongues 
of  the  ablest  men  in  a  Parliament  that  Cowper  has  said  embraced 
the  largest  number  of  the  ablest  men  of  any  Parliament  that  ever 
sat.  The  appeal  was  not  without  effect  upon  the  government  itself, 
and  the  doors  were  open  enough  to  make  the  appeal  exceedingly 


247 

effective  upon  the  public  opinion  of  the  realm.  The  ministers  met 
the  assault  for  the  moment,  as  weak  or  corrupt  men  commonly  do, 
with  flippancy  and  boasting,  and  then  adjourned  for  a  six  weeks' 
holiday  vacation;  but  the  masses  thought  it  more  fitting  to  meet 
it  with  a  day  of  fasting,  humiliation  and  prayer.  Soon  after  the 
return  from  the  roast  beef  and  plum  pudding  of  the  holiday 
recess,  the  prime  minister  brought  in  a  proposition  to  send  a  com- 
mission to  America  to  promise  the  colonists  all  that  they  had  ever 
asked,  together  with  representation  in  Parliament,  upon  the  only 
condition  that  they  would  return  to  their  allegiance.  With  the 
approval  of  Parliament  he  sent  it  by  a  commissioner  who,  Horace 
Walpole  said,  was  a  fit  commissioner  to  make  a  treaty  that  would 
never  be  made.  Whether  Horace  was  altogether  correct  or  not, 
he  certainly  was  so  in  part,  for  the  Continental  Congress  unani- 
mously resolved  not  to  confer  with  any  commissioners  from  Great 
Britain  until  independence  was  recognized  in  express  terms  by 
the  cabinet  ministers  themselves.  Saratoga  had  turned  the  corner 
of  the  struggle  which  was  writing  "American  Independence " 
across  the  skies. 

But  the  news  of  Saratoga  set  new  forces  in  motion  that  were 
even  more  compelling  in  the  direction  of  independence  than  was 
pride,  or  fear,  or  conscience.  Apprehension  of  those  new  forces 
on  the  other  side  of  the  sea  doubtless  compelled  the  overtures  for 
peace;  and  the  hope  and  expectation  of  them,  joined  with  the 
great  confidence  which  Saratoga  had  inspired,  may  explain  the 
unanimity  with  which  those  far-reaching  overtures  were  rejected 
on  this  side  of  the  sea. 

There  was  hardly  a  court  in  Europe  from  Madrid  to  Moscow 
that  had  not  for  years  been  disposed  to  throw  stones  at  the  Court 
of  London,  or  to  hold  the  coats  of  those  who  would.  They  had 
hitherto  preferred  to  do  it  in  the  dark,  and  had  done  a  good  deal 
of  diplomatic  lying  about  it,  but  they  were  about  ready  to  do  it  in 
daylight.  The  King  of  England  had  been  sending  royal  messen- 
gers with  autograph  notes  to  the  sovereigns  of  Europe  praying  them 
to  supply  soldiers  to  reduce  his  rebellious  colonies  in  America, 
with  assurances  that  he  would  not  regard  the  cost.  Brave  little 
Holland  recalled  her  own  revolutionary  history,  remembered  her 
children  upon  the  Hudson  and  Mohawk,  and  sharply  refused. 
Even  the  giddy  dame  and  subtle  sovereign  on  Russia's  throne 
resented  the  bald  proposition  that  she  might  plunge  her  hand 
as  deeply  as  she  pleased  into  Britain's  treasury  if  she  would  send 


248 

twenty  thousand  troops  to  help  her  royal  brother  in  distress.  She 
held  it  to  be  an  offense  to  her  honor,  and  she  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  overfastidious  about  honor  either.  She  asked  the  King's 
emissary  if  it  would  not  disgust  the  people  of  England,  and 
assured  him  that  it  was  "  not  consistent  with  the  dignity  of  Eng- 
land to  employ  foreign  troops  against  her  own  subjects."  It  was 
left  to  the  petty  princes  of  Hesse-Cassel  and  Brunswick  in  Ger- 
many to  sell  their  subjects  upon  abhorrent  terms  and  for  vast 
sums  upon  which  one  of  the  best  of  the  English  historians  says 
England  is  paying  interest  to  this  very  day.  But  the  bluff  and 
great  Frederick,  King  of  Prussia,  characterized  the  performance 
as  driving  men  to  the  shambles  like  cattle,  for  nothing  but  money. 

But  of  all  the  enemies  that  England  had  in  Europe,  France  and 
Spain  were  the  nearest,  the  strongest,  the  bitterest,  and  the  most 
superficially  polite.  They  were  both  hereditary  rivals  of  England 
for  the  possession  of  America,  and  it  was  not  two  score  years 
since  Wolfe  and  Montcolm  had  fought  their  doubly  tragic  duel  upon 
the  Plains  of  Abraham,  as  a  result  of  which  England  had  taken 
Canada  from  France  and  would  drive  her  out  of  America  for 
good,  and  was  pushing  Spain  beyond  the  Mississippi  with  rather 
serious  intimations,  which  we  have  seen  realized,  that  she  too 
might  be  obliged  to  get  off  the  American  continent  altogether. 
These  two  powerful  nations,  united  by  heredity,  religion,  military 
efficiency,  and  discomfitures,  were  not  the  kind  to  lose  sight  of  the 
opportunity  for  crippling  their  arch  enemy  by  encouraging  the 
American  revolt. 

They  acted  together  not  only  in  giving  encouragement  but  in 
supplying  money,  clothing,  cannon,  small  arms,  shot  and  powder 
to  the  colonists.  This  began  in  May  1776,  two  months  before  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  Of  course  it  had  to  be  disguised, 
for  any  public  knowledge  of  it  would  have  been  tantamount  to 
the  declaration  of  another  war  across  the  English  channel.  They 
were  no  strangers  to  war,  but  they  knew  their  old  antagonist  very 
well  and  they  realized  the  danger  of  clashing  with  her  again  unless 
at  a  time  when  she  was  handicapped  or  crippled.  Under  such 
tense  circumstances  the  French  and  Spanish  supplies  flowed  rather 
freely  when  the  patriots  were  successful,  but  the  stream  was  more 
sluggish  whenever  the  Revolution  seemed  to  face  the  possibility 
of  failure.  It  almost  dried  up  in  the  summer  and  fall  of  1777, 
when  the  colonial  outlook  was  so  discouraging  that  the  secret 
agent  of  France  told  Franklin  that  there  was  danger  of  France 


249 

"  cutting  my  throat  as  if  I  was  a  sheep."  But  in  October  the 
conquest  at  Saratoga  opened  the  flood-gates  and  threw  off  all  dis- 
guise. 

Early  in  December  an  evening  dinner  party  at  Doctor  Franklin's 
house  at  Passy,  a  suburb  of  Paris,  was  very  properly  interrupted 
by  a  courier  with  news  of  the  disaster  to  Burgoyne,  and  that 
agent,  who  was  enjoying  the  doctor's  hospitality,  rushed  off  to 
carry  the  news  to  the  court  at  Versailles  with  so  much  elation 
over  the  increased  safety  to  his  throat  that  in  his  haste  and  in  the 
darkness  he  upset  his  coach  and  dislocated  his  shoulder.  But  the 
news  led  the  King  to  move  almost  as  precipitously  as  his  agent, 
for  on  December  6th  the  American  representatives  in  Paris  re- 
ceived the  direct  assurances  of  Louis  the  Fourteenth  written  on 
the  gilt  edged  stationery  which  he  reserved  exclusively  for  his 
correspondence,  that  France  was  now  ready  to  give  to  the  United 
States  every  proof  of  his  interest  and  affection.  Six  days  later 
Vergennes  granted  the  American  delegates  a  formal  audience  and 
with  such  favorable  results  that  in  another  six  days,  in  replying 
to  the  dispatch  from  Congress  announcing  the  capture  of  Bur- 
goyne, the  delegates  assured  Congress  that  the  "  surrender  of 
Burgoyne  had  created  as  much  joy  in  France  as  if  it  had  been  a 
victory  of  their  own  troops  over  their  own  enemies."  The  prelim- 
inary articles  of  alliance  with  France  were  signed  on  January  17th, 
and  the  formal  ones  on  February  6th.  The  alliance  was  tantamount 
to  a  declaration  of  war  against  England,  and  the  brief  delay  in  the 
public  proclamation  of  the  treaty  was  for  military  reasons. 

There  were  in  fact  two  of  these  treaties.  One  was  for  amity 
and  trade.  The  other  established  a  complete  military  and  civic 
alliance.  The  latter  contravened  the  instructions  of  the  Continental 
Congress,  for  that  body  had  expressed  views  that  were  greatly  to 
its  honor  and  far  in  advance  of  the  accepted  tenets  of  international 
diplomacy  of  that  day.  Foreshadowing  a  course  which  the  United 
States,  with  the  exception  of  this  single  instance,  has  always  con- 
sistently adhered  to,  the  Congress  had  instructed  its  representatives 
to  avoid  a  treaty  which  might  "  entangle  us  in  any  future  wars  in 
Europe  "  and  it  exemplified  its  statesmanship  as  well  as  its  love  of 
Old  England  by  directing  its  ambassadors  to  refuse  "  to  unite  with 
France  in  the  destruction  of  England."  This  was  the  first  treaty 
that  our  country  ever  made,  and  it  is  the  only  offensive  and  de- 
fensive alliance  that  it  has  ever  entered  into.  And  the  time  cane 
when  even  this  had  to  be  renounced  rather  ruthlessly  and  without 


reparation.  But  all  good  and  patriotic  Americans  have  weighed 
the  motives  of  the  parties  and  witnessed  the  historical  results,  and 
have  been  glad  that  such  a  spotless  character  and  able  jurist  as 
John  Jay  could  say,  when  it  came  to  renouncing  this  treaty  so 
vital  to  the  life  of  the  Union,  that  he  would  break  the  instructions 
of  the  Congress  as  readily  as  he  would  the  pipe  that  he  then 
threw  upon  the  hearth. 

The  course  of  the  United  States  in  this  great  matter  is  easily 
enough  understood  for  it  seems  to  have  been  dictated  by  absolute 
necessity,  but  it  is  difficult  to  justify  the  diplomacy  of  France. 
The  French  King  with  his  Queen  perished  upon  the  scaffold  of  a 
revolution  which  was  the  logical  descendant  of  the  one  he  was  now 
aiding  and  abetting.  The  cost  to  France  of  aid  given  to  the 
colonies  was  over  1,280,000,000  francs  or  $256,000,000.  That  was 
enough  of  itself  to  bring  on  the  French  Revolution.  This  aid  was 
given  to  Anglo- Saxon  liberty  in  America  in  order  to  menace  Eng- 
land and  thus  help  despotism  in  France.  But  it  had  the  contrary 
effect.  It  promoted  liberty  in  America,  in  England,  in  France, 
and  in  all  the  world.  So  God  makes  His  own  use  of  human 
agencies  to  promote  His  own  ends. 

The  dispatches  announcing  the  execution  of  the  French  treaties 
were  received  by  Congress  on  Saturday,  May  2,  1778.  It  was 
after  adjournment  for  the  week  when  they  were  delivered,  but 
Congress  reconvened  at  once  in  order  that  the  good  news  need 
not  be  concealed  over  Sunday.  On  the  ensuing  Monday  the 
treaties  were  ratified  by  Congress.  Robert  Morris  wrote  Wash- 
ington, "  Our  independence  is  undoubtedly  secured :  our  country 
must  be  free."  The  army  at  Valley  Forge  had  a  holiday;  the 
commander  in  chief  gave  a  dinner;  Lafayette  was  given  the  com- 
mand of  a  division;  and  the  whole  was  solemnized  by  thanks- 
giving to  God  in  acknowledgment  of  the  divine  goodness  which 
had  vouchsafed  to  the  colonies  the  alliance  with  France. 

France  followed  the  treaties  very  soon  with  a  formal  declaration 
of  war  against  England,  and  with  earnest  appeals  to  Spain  to  act 
in  concert  with  her.  Indeed,  she  had  already  notified  Spain  that 
the  months  of  January  and  February  1778  would  be  the  outside 
limit  of  time  when  Spain  must  unite  with  France  in  an  alliance 
with  the  colonies  and  a  declaration  of  war  against  England  in 
order  to  make  the  assistance  effective  enough  to  deserve  Ameri- 
can gratitude  in  case  of  success.  The  moment  the  French  min- 
istry received  the  news  of  Saratoga,  Vergennes  sent  a  courier  to 


251 

Madrid  urging  combined  and  immediate  action.  Fortunately 
France  took  the  important  step  from  which  she  could  not  draw 
back  without  waiting  for  the  return  of  the  courier.  Spain  refused 
an  immediate  declaration  of  war  on  the  ground  that  she  was  not 
prepared  for  it,  and  urged  thai  the  building  up  of  an  independent 
republic   in  America  v/as   of  questionable  expediency. 

In  the  light  of  subsequent  events  the  attitude  of  the  leading 
Spanish  statesmen  is  singularly  interesting.  France,  with  whom 
their  country  was  allied  by  blood,  religion,  system  of  government, 
ideals,  dangers,  and  disappointments,  was  urging  her  to  aid  the 
colonies,  and  they  were  urging  upon  her  far  greater  rewards  than 
they  could  afford  to  give  her,  and  yet  she  stood  firm  in  her  opposi- 
tion to  a  republic  in  America  for  the  reason,  as  one  of  her  states- 
men advised  her  king,  that  "  this  federal  republic  is  born  a  pigmy; 
a  day  will  come  when  it  will  be  a  giant ;  even  a  Colossus  formid- 
able to  these  countries,"  and  as  another  put  it,  "  if  the  union  of 
the  American  provinces  shall  continue,  they  will  become  by  force 
of  time  and  of  the  arts,  the  most  formidable  power  in  the  world." 

In  the  following  year  Spain  declared  war  upon  England  but 
happily  for  us  avoided  the  American  alliance  which  the  colonists 
urged  and  for  which  we  now  know  they  were  ready  to  pay  too 
heavy  a  price.  The  year  after  that  England  was  at  war  with 
Holland  too  because  she  gave  the  colonies  her  sympathy  and  some 
financial  assistance.  And  with  it  all  there  was  a  recognition  of  the 
new-born  republic  and  a  declaration  of  neutrality  by  Russia,  Den- 
mark, and  Sweden. 

Britain  with  a  formidable  revolution  on  her  hands  was  now 
menaced  by  the  great  military  forces  of  Europe.  No  real  lover  of 
English  freedom  can  be  devoid  of  sorrow  and  pity  that  a  people 
with  such  qualities,  such  a  history,  such  constitutional  power  and 
such  capacity  for  exercising  it,  could  let  an  over-ambitious  and 
unscrupulous  monarch  carry  them  to  such  an  extremity  of  danger 
and  humiliation.  For  it  was  no  more  a  question  as  to  whether  the 
colonies  should  go  free  than  it  was  whether  the  British  Empire 
should  survive.  Happily  the  colonies  did  go  free,  and,  happily, 
the  Empire  did  survive. 

Condensed  into  few  words,  the  immediate  military  results  of 
the  destruction  of  Burgoyne's  army  may  be  stated  as  follows:  it 
took  from  Britain  in  the  field  ten  thousand  of  the  best  officers  and 
soldiers  in  the  British  army;  it  transferred  from  the  British  to  the 
Colonists  vast  stores  of  war  of  which  the  little  Confederacy  stood 


252 

sorely  in  need;  it  destroyed  all  confidence  in  the  Indians  as  allies 
of  value  in  systematic  warfare,  and  opened  the  way  for  punishing 
the  Iroquois  so  severely  that  they  feared  and  respected  white 
civilization  ever  after;  it  cut  off  for  all  time  all  communication 
between  the  English  loyalists  in  Canada  and  their  army  and  navy 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson ;  and  it  completely  ended  all  resistance 
to  the  Revolution  in  New  York  and  New  England  where  there 
was  the  most  in  America  that  could  give  strength  and  substance  to 
the  British  crown.  It  opened  the  doors  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
appealed  to  English  sense,  pride  and  conscience,  and  led  to  immed- 
iate overtures  for  peace  from  Britain  on  any  terms  but  separation, 
and  to  the  unanimous  and  unhesitating  rejection  of  these  overtures. 
It  produced  the  French  alliance  and  the  consequent  war  by  France 
upon  England,  the  war  of  Spain  upon  England,  the  Dutch  loan  to 
the  Colonists  and  then  the  warfare  of  the  Netherlands  upon  Eng- 
land, and  the  early  recognition  of  American  independence  by  all 
the  leading  powers  of  Europe. 

No  one  suggests  that  the  Revolution  ended  at  Saratoga.  Com- 
pletely foiled  in  the  northern  colonies,  the  Mother  Country  turned 
to  the  southern  colonies.  She  probably  reasoned  that  there  were 
more  loyalists  and  perhaps  not  so  many  hardy  fighters  there.  If 
so  she  had  occasion  to  realize  that  in  part  at  least  she  was  mis- 
taken. As  horrid  war  receded  from  their  cabins  the  exhausted 
settlers,  north  or  south,  became  indifferent.  They  were  without 
men  to  send  long  distances ;  there  was  lack  of  roads  and  of  means 
of  transportation;  and  they  could  not  go  far  from  their  own  fire- 
sides without  grave  danger  to  their  wives  and  children.  They 
were  not  only  without  money,  but  they  were  without  government 
or  the  experience  which  could  make  government  effective.  Worse 
still  perhaps,  the  states  were  jealous  of  each  other  and  of  all  central 
power.  Each  knew  that  with  the  help  of  its  neighbors  at  least  it 
could  defend  itself  against  invasion,  and  reasoned  that  far  away 
states  must  do  the  same.  So  the  war  dragged  its  slow  course 
through  months  and  years  of  suffering  and  death,  until  the  men 
of  the  South  proved  at  Cowpens,  and  King's  Mountain,  and 
Yorktown,  what  the  men  of  the  North  had  proved  at  Oriskany, 
and  Bennington,  and  Saratoga.  But  the  time  never  was  before 
the  surrender  at  Saratoga  when  the  separation  from  Great  Britain 
was  altogether  certain,  and  the  time  never  was  after  Saratoga 
when  there  was  any  reasonable  doubt  about  it. 

But  if  Saratoga  was  a  turning  point  in  the  Revolutionary  War, 


253 

it  was  also  very  much  more  than  that,  for  the  success  of  the 
American  Revolution  brought  new  lights  into  the  world  and  opened 
wholly  unprecedented  opportunities  for  the  unhampered  advances 
of  the  noblest  qualities  of  men  and  women.  The  separation 
from  Britain  must  have  been  in  the  Divine  Plan.  The  Colonists  were 
not  seeking  independence  except  as  independence,  which,  in  view  of 
the  unscrupulous  conduct  of  the  English  king  and  the  hot-headed 
course  of  the  English  Parliament,  was  the  last  refuge  of  English 
liberty  in  America.  They  did  not  want  war ;  they  went  to  great 
pains  to  prove  that  they  did  not  begin  it.  But  their  inherent 
qualities  —  self-reliance,  self-confidence,  love  of  fair  play,  gifts  for 
establishing  social  order,  the  matter-of-course  assumption  that  the 
fundamental  rights  of  English  freemen  could  not  be  impaired,  and 
the  purpose  to  manage  their  own  business  in  their  own  way,  made 
the  Colonists  invincible.  They  were  invincible  not  because  they 
loved  war  or  were  in  rebellion  against  English  institutions.  Neither 
was  true.  They  abhorred  war  and  were  in  love  with  English  in- 
stitutions. Indeed,  they  were  not  dissatisfied  with  the  form  of  the 
English  government.  They  were  invincible  because  the  soul  of  a 
new  and  a  free  nation  was  ripe  for  its  birth. 

Independence  had  to  be,  not  only  because  of  what  compelled  it, 
but  because  the  world  was  ready  and  waiting  for  what  was  to  flow 
out  of  it.  There  are  no  bonds  strong  enough  to  confine  the  mind 
and  soul  of  a  human  being,  and  surely  there  are  none  strong  enough 
to  limit  the  growth  of  the  mind  and  soul  of  a  new  nation.  The 
inherent  qualities,  the  native  impulses,  of  those  early  colonists, 
wrought  out  even  more  than  they  understood.  They  compelled 
intellectual,  spiritual,  political,  industrial,  commercial  and  social 
opportunity.  They  assured  equality  of  right  to  all.  They  opened 
the  way  for  that  unprecedented  expansion  of  all  the  self-activities 
which  constitute  the  soul  of  a  nation.  The  American  colonies  did 
more  than  win  independence.  They  won  freedom,  absolute  free- 
dom for  themselves  and  enlarged  freedom  for  the  people  of  all 
lands.  It  is  that  which  brought  the  sagacious  prophecy  of  the 
Spanish  statesman  of  1777  to  realization  so  swiftly  and  so  strongly. 

But  so  much  had  to  be  settled  through  human  instrumentalities 
and  expressed  in  human  action.  And  it  transpired  that  more  of 
that  heroic  human  action  which  determined  that  America  should 
be  civilized  rather  than  savage,  English  rather  than  Bourbon,  re- 
publican rather  than  monarchial,  and  completely  free  in  a  new 
world  rather  than  bound  by  the  laws,  usage,  and  thought  of  the 


254 

Old  World,  was  expressed  along  the  mighty  thoroughfare  which 
follows  the  Hudson  from  the  sea  to  its  source,  and  then  winds 
along  the  shores  of  Lake  George  and  Lake  Champlain  to  the 
Sorrell  and  the  St  Lawrence  rivers.  It  is  truly  the  greatest  street 
ever  cut  through  a  wilderness  for  the  mental  and  moral  progress 
of  mankind.  A  decade  before  the  Pilgrims  came  to  Plymouth 
Rock,  the  great  forerunners  of  American  exploration,  Champlain 
and  Hudson,  in  the  same  year,  working  from  the  north  and  from 
the  south,  and  without  knowledge  of  each  other,  laid  down  this 
first  great  highway  upon  the  map  of  the  western  world.  It  was  the 
bloody  warpath  of  the  Iroquois  and  the  Algonquin,  of  the  French 
and  Indian,  and  of  the  Revolutionary,  wars.  It  is  so  level  and  so 
watered  that  one  may  float  a  boat  almost  the  entire  distance.  It 
encounters  but  one  elevation  and  that  of  but  a  hundred  and  fifty 
feet.  It  has  come  to  be  a  great  national  highway  of  commerce  and 
of  pleasure.  With  the  Berkshires  and  the  Green  mountains  over- 
hanging it  upon  one  side,  and  the  Catskills  and  the  Adirondacks 
upon  the  other,  it  must  always  remain  surpassingly  wild,  pictur- 
esque, impressive  and  sublime.  It  is  the  easy  roadway  to  the  very 
heart  of  nature  in  America,  but  even  that  is  not  its  chief  attraction. 
It  is  the  chief  roadway  over  which  the  new-born  soul  of  the  nation 
fought  its  way  to  that  freedom  of  opportunity  which  has  attracted 
all  the  peoples  of  the  earth  and  here  gathered  and  assimilated  the 
great  new  nation  of  modern  history.  Every  rod  of  it  has  been 
crimsoned  with  heroic  and  patriotic  blood.  Every  nook  and  vista 
of  it  has  its  true  story  of  struggle  and  accomplishment,  of  daring 
and  of  sorrow.  At  its  foot  the  first  American  settlement  that  has 
endured  was  established,  and  there  the  foremost  city  of  the  land, 
very  soon  to  be  the  foremost  city  of  the  world,  sits  in  confidence 
and  glory.  In  that  city  the  first  rich  blood  of  the  Revolution  was 
spilled,  and  there,  eight  years  after,  Washington  bade  his  official 
farewell  to  the  officers  of  the  patriot  army  he  had  led  to  complete 
victory.  Retreating  along  this  road,  under  the  protection  of  the 
army,  the  New  York  Convention  wrote  the  first  Constitution  of 
the  State.  In  sight  of  it  Arnold  proved  many  times  what  a  fine 
soldier  he  was,  and  once  he  showed  what  a  contemptible  traitor  he 
could  be.  And  in  sight  of  it  too  American  literature  had  its  birth. 
So  too  did  American  unity,  for  at  Albany,  in  1754,  the  first  Con- 
gress of  the  American  Confederation  was  assembled,  and  at 
Poughkeepsie  the  State  Convention  gave  to  the  Federal  Constitu- 
tion that  vital  support  which  it  had  to  have.    Fort  Edward,  Fort 


255 

William  Henry,  Fort  Ticonderoga,  Crown  Point,  which  are  a  little 
farther  up  along  this  roadway,  signify  pleasant  resting  places  to 
us,  but  they  ought  to  portray  thousands  of  men  in  the  bloody 
agonies  of  death  for  English  liberty  and  American  independence. 
Plattsburg,  at  the  far  end  of  it,  makes  us  think  of  a  thrifty  city 
and  a  pleasant  people,  but  it  might  well  make  us  think  of  an  old 
sailor  calling  his  officers  to  the  quarter-deck  of  his  flagship  and 
kneeling  down  and  praying  for  the  victory  such  men  clearly 
deserved  and  were  very  soon  to  win.  A  special  paper,  perhaps  a 
book,  would  be  needed  to  specify  the  events  of  real  and  often  of 
supreme  significance  to  American  nationality  and  to  human  free- 
dom in  the  world,  which  have  transpired  along  this  magnificent 
highway  of  more  than  three  hundred  miles. 

Midway  upon  this  great  thoroughfare  so  close  to  nature,  so 
created  by  and  so  consecrated  to  the  country,  stands  Saratoga. 
It  is  rightfully  at  the  center  of  the  line  for  it  marks  the  high  tide 
of  the  Revolutionary  War,  the  site  of  one  of  the  great  decisive 
battles  of  the  world;  it  assured  the  life  of  the  first  great  republic 
that  has.  long  endured  to  give  opportunity  to  the  many-sided  phases 
of  the  spiritual,  social,  industrial,  and  political  life  of  mankind. 


EDUCATION    BUILDING  -  DEDICATORY 
ADDRESS 

[257] 


EDUCATION  BUILDING —  DEDICATORY  ADDRESS1 

Your  Excellency  Governor  Dix,  Mr  Chancellor  and  Ladies  and 
Gentlemen: 

This  building  had  its  beginning  in  the  very  early  history  of  this 
nation.  The  Dutch  colonial  charter  of  1629,  given  by  a  people  more 
advanced  in  democracy,  in  learning  and  in  the  skilled  industries, 
than  any  other  people  in  the  world,  and  before  there  was  a  school 
in  America,  enjoined  the  little  colony  upon  Manhattan  island  to 
"  find  ways  and  means  to  support  a  minister  and  a  schoolmaster, 
that  thus  the  service  of  God  and  zeal  for  religion  may  not  grow 
cold  and  be  neglected  among  them."  In  1633,  there  was  organized 
in  New  Amsterdam  by  a  Dutch  schoolmaster,  Adam  Roelandson, 
the  first  common  school  in  America;  and  today  a  manuscript  bear- 
ing the  signature  of  that  first  schoolmaster  is  carefully  guarded 
in  the  vaults  of  this  building.  A  second  chapter,  and  a  very  im- 
portant one,  in  the  history  of  this  building  begins  immediately  at 
the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War  at  the  "  first  session  after  the 
peace  "  when  an  act  was  passed  by  the  Legislature  creating  the 
corporation  known  as  "  The  Regents  of  the  University  of  the 
State  of  New  York,"  and  empowering  that  organization  to  hold 
property  to  the  amount  of  the  annual  income  of  "  forty  thousand 
bushels  of  wheat."  A  third  step  was  taken  in  1795  when  the 
State  made  a  liberal  appropriation  and  initiated  the  very  vital 
American  educational  policy  of  systematically  subsidizing  and  en- 
couraging elementary  schools.  Still  another  chapter  which  looms 
large  today  in  the  records  of  the  antecedents  of  this  building,  was 
begun  in  1812  when  the  State  of  New  York,  the  first  in  the 
country,  passed  the  law  which  bound  all  the  public  schools  to- 
gether in  a  common  system  and  took  them  under  the  direction 
of  the  State.  Yet  another  step  in  the  march  toward  this  build- 
ing was  taken  in  1854  when  the  State  anticipated  her  neighbors  by 
organizing  an  independent  State  Department  of  Public  Instruc- 
tion for  the  supervision  of  common  schools.  Then  in  the  progress 
of  time  and  after  much  tribulation  came  the  unification   of   all 


iAddress  delivered  by  invitation  of  the  Regents  of  the  University  of  the 
State  of  New  York  at  the  dedication  of  the  New  York  State  Education 
Building,  October  17,  1912. 

259 
9 


2(5o 

the  educational  forces  of  the  State  in  1904,  and  in  1910  the 
Education  Law  which  fixed  everything  rather  securely.  These 
are  the  dates  in  the  history  of  New  York  education  which  are 
great  enough  to  give  them  places  upon  the  seal  of  the  State  Educa- 
tion Department.  The  occupancy  of  this  building  will  doubtless 
justify  the  adding  of  another. 

It  would  be  a  pleasant  task  here  to  record  the  names  and 
the  accomplishments  of  the  men  who  during  the  past  three  hundred 
years  have  stood  at  the  forefront,  giving  themselves  to  the  schools 
and  urging  that  the  State  should  make  ample  provision  for  the 
education  of  its  people.  But  we  do  not  alone  dedicate  this  build- 
ing to  the  memory  of  the  leaders  in  education  who  have  gone. 
In  this  proud  hour  we  do  not  forget  the  men  and  women  in  all 
walks  of  life  who  have  made  the  Empire  State  the  noble  Common- 
wealth that  she  is.  We  have  nothing  but  appreciation,  gratitude 
and  honor  for  those  who  broke  the  roads  through  the  wilderness ; 
who  withstood  the  Indians  and  made  clearings  in  the  valleys;  who 
set  up  log  cabins,  and  schoolhouses,  and  churches;  who  established 
ithe  finest  young  farming  civilization  that  the  world  ever  saw;  who 
developed  towns  and  highways,  canals  and  railroads ;  and  whose 
common  sincerity  and  political  sagacity  laid  firm  the  foundations 
upon  which  such  a  State  could  be  built.  We  cherish  the  memories 
of  the  men  and  women  of  the  last  generation  who  had  to  over- 
come much  and  specious  opposition  to  bear  the  great  burden  which 
it  was  the  business  of  this  State  to  carry  in  the  war  to  save  -the 
Union.  Nor  do  we  overlook  the  teachers,  and  preachers,  and  law- 
yers, and  publishers,  and  bankers,  and  engineers,  and  all  the  other 
workers  who  have  made  this  State  in  this  generation  to  thrill  with 
an  energy  which  makes  her  exalted  position  and  her  great  influence 
to  be  everywhere  honored.  We  would  if  we  could  inscribe  their 
names  upon  the  sunny  side  of  this  fair  temple. 

This  building  comes  very  naturally  and  very  logically  in  the  prog- 
ress of  education  in  this  State.  It  has  not  resulted  from  accident 
-or  chance.  The  Unification  Act  of  1904  forever  silenced  the  in- 
evitable differences  in  the  double-headed  system  of  administration 
in  education  which  had  persistently  existed  in  this  State  for 
more  than  an  hundred  years.  When  that  act  came  into  actual  and 
entirely  successful  operation  there  were  many  who  felt  that  the 
time  had  fully  come  when  there  should  be  something  which  would 
serve  as  a  pledge  of  perpetual  union  and  an  assurance  of  vital 
educational   progress,   and  which  would   at   once  place   education 


26 1 

where  it  of  right  belongs  in  the  activities  of  such  a  state.  A 
permanent  home  for  the  unified  department  was  therefore  the 
natural  suggestion.  The  legislative  bill  providing  for  the  project 
was  drawn  with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  skepticism  of  the  public 
about  the  erection  of  state  buildings.  It  therefore  contained  the 
safeguards  of  orderly  and  intelligent  procedure,  of  honest  business 
management,  and  of  satisfactory  architectural  and  utilitarian  results. 
It  did  much  more.  The  proposal  to  bring  all  educational  interests 
under  one  roof,  under  a  unified  legislative  and  executive  administra- 
tion, with  the  enlarged  assurance  of  permanent  unity,  at  once  com- 
mended itself  to  legislative  committees  that  had  long  sought  educa- 
tional peace.  The  bill  was  somewhat  attractive  because  it  placed 
New  York  before  every  other  state  and  every  other  country  in 
erecting  a  really  noble  structure  declared  by  law  to  be  for  the 
exclusive  use  of  its  educational  forces.  The  appeal  for  it  was  not 
made  to  the  Legislature  alone;  it  was  made  quite  as  directly  to 
the  people.  And  the  nobility  of  the  proposition,  the  promise  that 
was  in  it,  possibly  the  very  audacity  or  aggressiveness  of  it,  appealed 
to  the  temper  of  the  State  so  strongly  that  all  opposition  disappeared. 

A  more  serious  task  than  that  of  securing  the  law  appeared  when 
the  time  came  for  a  few  men  to  meet  the  demands  of  the  law  and 
of  the  situation.  It  is  one  thing  for  a  monarch  with  boundless 
power  and  limitless  resources  to  empower  a  great  artist  to  develop 
a  great  structure;  it  is  quite  another  thing  for  a  democratic  people 
acting  through  their  own  representatives  to  enter  upon  such  an 
enterprise  with  promise  of  satisfactory  result.  The  exactions  in 
this  case  were  very  great.  The  structure  had  to  provide  for  many 
and  marvelous  activities,  which  in  complexity,  exactness  and  extent, 
are  hardly  rivaled  in  any  manner  of  public  administration.  It  had 
to  respond  to  the  nobler  side  of  our  nature,  or  fail.  It  had  to 
regard  all  interior  arrangements  which  would  aid  the  technical 
work  of  a  large  force,  and  it  had  to  stand  adjacent  to,  and  there- 
fore in  architectural  rivalry  with,  a  monumental  Capitol  which 
had  exceeded  it  in  cost  six  times  over.  It  could  only  be  successful 
by  making  it  serve  its  work  completely  and  by  making  it  at  the 
same  time  strikingly  beautiful.  It  was  necessary  to  study  the  in- 
terior plans  with  infinite  care,  and  appeal  to  the  Gods  of  Art  and 
Architecture  for  the  exterior. 

The  public  will  welcome  the  announcement  that  we  dedicate  a 
building  which  has  been  carried  to  admirable  and  complete  fruition 
without  a  scandal,  without  unseemly  controversy,  and  within  the 


262 

appropriation  that  was  first  provided  for  it.  But  more  than  that 
has  been  done.  More  has  been  done  than  the  successful  housing 
of  many  interests  under  one  roof.  More  has  been  done  than  the 
erection  of  a  building  so  admirably  adapted  to  its  uses  that  it  at 
once  becomes  the  comfortable  home  and  the  inspiration  of  the  widely 
different  work  of  the  many  divisions  of  the  Education  Department. 
It  is  confidently  believed  that  a  substantial  contribution  has  been 
made  to  the  art  and  architecture  of  the  world.  If  this  building  were 
to  stand  near  the  best  of  the  state  capitals,  or  even  the  national 
capitol,  typical  and  beautiful  as  that  is,  it  would  hold  the  attention 
and  the  admiration  of  all  lovers  of  the  beautiful;  if  it  had  to  bear 
comparison  with  the  great  churches  of  the  world  —  St  Paul's  and 
Westminster  in  London,  Notre  Dame  in  Paris,  St  Isaac's  in  St 
Petersburg,  St  Peter's  in  Rome  —  it  might  fall  short  in  massiveness 
and  impressiveness,  but  the  nobility  of  lines  and  proportions,  and 
the  bold  and  chaste  uses  of  stone  and  iron  for  the  promotion  of 
culture  and  the  quickening  of  spirituality,  would  attract  the  admira- 
tion of  all  visitors ;  and  if  judges  of  the  supremely  beautiful  in  con- 
struction were  to  stand  where  Michel  Angelo's  David  overlooks  the 
great  center  of  the  world's  art  at  Florence,  or  where  Gallon's  Gari- 
baldi looks  down  upon  the  world's  most  ancient  and  unique  collec- 
tion of  architecture  at  Rome,  and  were  to  see  these  white  marble 
walls,  these  harmonious  proportions,  and  this  long  and  graceful 
colonnade,  they  would  surely  marvel  at  the  genius  that  had  begotten 
it,  and  place  it  among  the  first  dozen  of  most  beautiful  buildings  in 
the  world. 

But  while  we  rejoice  in  the  grace  and  dignity  of  this  building,  we 
remember  that  this  dedication  but  creates  for  us  the  opportunity 
for  service,  and  that  a  real  uplift  to  the  State  must  come  through 
the  uses  to  which  it  is  to  be  put.  In  a  larger  sense  we  rededicate 
today  to  the  service  of  the  people  of  the  State  and  of  the  nation 
the  remains  of  a  noble  library,  which  were  gathered  up  in  flame 
and  smoke,  and  which  by  the  noble  action  of  the  State  is  being 
hourly  made  broader  and  stronger  than  we  had  ever  dared  to  hope ; 
we  rededicate  museum  collections  known  throughout  the  scientific 
world ;  and  we  strengthen  and  quicken  an  administrative  educational 
organization  which  extends  to  every  home  in  the  State  and  is  in 
constant  cooperation  with  like  agencies  in  all  lands. 

In  this  library  we  will  make  a  storehouse  of  the  "  best  books  of 
all  lands  and  all  ages."  We  will  be  tolerant.  We  will  discriminate 
against  none  save  on  moral  grounds.    We  can  hardly  use  the  money 


263 

of  the  people  for  editions  of  capricious  value.  But  we  will  lay 
hold  of  the  products  of  human  experience  and  of  intellectual  energy 
in  this  country  and  in  all  countries,  that  the  State  Library  "  may 
uplift  the  State  and  serve  every  citizen."  Pure  literature,  literature 
to  quicken  the  spiritual  as  well  as  the  intellectual  life,  literature 
which  unfolds  the  history  of  the  human  race  and  of  the  English 
and  American  people  in  particular,  the  literature  of  the  political 
sciences  and  of  the  physical  sciences,  all  that  can  make  New  York 
richer  in  mind  and  stronger  in  social  structure,  and  more  zestful 
for  the  true  greatness  of  the  State,  will  have  welcome  in  this 
State's  storehouse  of  knowledge  and  of  power. 

But  we  will  make  it  a  power  station  more  than  a  storehouse. 
Books  have  come  to  be  commonplace  in  our  generation  of  much 
publication.  There  is  little  point  in  setting  up  a  collection  of  books 
only  for  such  as  will  come  and  use  them.  New  York  dedicates 
this  building  to  more  than  that.  The  State  has  heretofore  set  up 
buildings  only  out  of  necessity  and  for  very  material  ends.  It  has 
yielded  to  demands  when  necessary  to  protect  itself,  but  it  has 
not  often  taken  the  initiative  and  the  aggressive  to  uplift  itself. 
This  building  recognizes  the  fact  that  the  culture  of  the  soul  is 
a  work  which  the  State  is  not  only  to  consent  to  and  encourage, 
but  which  it  is  to  aid  and  to  promote.  We  dedicate  this  building 
to  the  generation  of  the  energy  and  the  wisdom  which  will  qualify 
man  for  dominion  not  only  over  the  earth  and  air  and  sky  but  also 
over  every  living  thing  that  moveth  upon  the  earth  including  his 
dominion  over  self. 

In  this  museum  we  shall  record  not  only  the  progress  of  man  but 
the  march  of  the  ages.  Here  shall  be  brought  together  whatever 
shall  help  man  to  solve  the  mystery  of  the  earth  upon  which  we  live. 
Here  shall  experts  delve  into  the  obscure  and  bring  to  the  service 
of  the  people  both  our  manifest  and  our  hidden  resources.  Here 
shall  be  shown  for  popular  interest  the  flora  and  fauna  of  our 
State.  Here  shall  we  portray  in  graphic  form  the  great  names  and 
great  deeds  of  New  York.  And  while  we  dedicate  this  museum  to 
all  that  is  exact  and  accurate  in  science,  we  would  not  forget  that  the 
age  demands  that  all  knowledge  must  be  brought  to  bear  useful  ends 
in  uplifting  and  in  enlightening  all  the  people.  In  rededicating  the 
great  museum  which  will  soon  loom  large  upon  the  fourth  floor, 
we  recall  its  good  work  in  the  long  years  when  science  had  few 
friends  and  states  gave  small  support  to  it;  and  we  start  it  off  at 
a  new  pace  and  with  even  a  new  courage  to  unlock  more  truth, 


264 

and  with  the  expectation  that  it  will  incite  still  more  people  to  search 
for  the  truth. 

Beyond  particular  things  we  set  apart  this  noble  structure  to 
the  advancement  of  every  educative  influence  within  the  State. 
We  here  refresh  our  faith  in  that  "  system  of  free  common  schools 
wherein  all  the  children  of  the  State  may  be  educated."  Our  statutes 
place  upon  the  New  York  educational  organization  a  tremendous  re- 
sponsibility. Nearly  two  million  boys  and  girls  and  young  men  and 
women  are  in  attendance  upon  our  schools;  more  than  fifty  thou- 
sand men  and  women  are  engaged  in  teaching  these  schools ; 
eighty  million  dollars  are  expended  annually  for  education;  and 
more  than  three  hundred  and  fifty  million  dollars  are  invested 
in  school  and  college  property  in  this  State.  Our  constituency  is 
everywhere  and  our  obligation  reaches  to  every  cross-road.  We  are 
here  to  set  sane  standards  for  all  grades  and  classes  of  schools. 
We  are  here  to  say  who  shall  not  be  allowed  to  teach  and  to  enforce 
school  laws.  We  are  here  to  charter  colleges  and  universities  and 
professional  schools  and  to  bring  them  into  logical  and  effective 
cooperation  with  each  other  and  with  the  entire  system  of  educa- 
tion. We  are  here  to  maintain  and  advance  the  high  standard  which 
this  State  has  long  set  in  regulating  the  practice  of  the  pro- 
fessions. We  are  here  to  foster  and  to  encourage  all  private  schools 
and  other  private  educational  agencies,  and  so  far  as  possible  to 
blend  them  in  the  organized  system  of  the  State.  To  the  State 
government,  its  executive  officers,  its  legislatures,  its  boards  and 
commissions,  to  all  of  its  county  and  municipal  officers  charged 
with  public  business,  this  building  will  give  every  aid  that  will  be 
accepted.  Every  instrument  of  culture,  everything  that  makes  for 
the  common  good,  shall  find  here  a  helping  hand. 

This  fortunate  square,  at  the  midst  of  the  State's  most  exciting 
controversies,  when  self-interest  is  tense  and  reason  blinded,  shall  be 
neutral  ground.  This  house  shall  know  no  social,  political,  or  re- 
ligious distinctions.  It  shall  be  hospitable  and  helpful  to  all.  Some 
one  shall  stand  in  the  open  door  to  help  all  men  and  women,  all  boys 
and  girls,  to  the  very  limits  of  that  individual  self-reliance  which  is 
the  true  essence  of  American  manhood  and  womanhood.  It  shall  not 
aggravate  hatreds.  It  shall  square  life  with  truth.  This  building 
shall  stand  upon  the  foundation  principles  upon  which  our  free  State 
rests,  and  shall  be  devoted  to  the  exalted  purposes  for  which  our  free 
State  exists.  It  shall  assure  equality  of  opportunity;  it  shall  pro- 
vide the  common  helps  which  the  individual  can  not  supply ;  it  shall 


265 

aim  to  adjust  the  man  to  the  mass  and  make  the  wheels  of  the  social 
structure  and  of  the  government  organization  run  truly,  harmo- 
niously, and  for  resultful  ends.  Such  a  structure,  with  such  a  pur- 
pose, is  the  only  kind  of  instrument  through  which  our  claims  about 
the  worth  of  our  democracy  can  be  made  good.  Even  then  all 
depends  upon  the  strength  and  vitality  of  the  instrument,  and  that 
of  course  means  upon  the  human  elements  that  are  the  vital  factors 
of  it. 

There  will  have  to  be  resistance  as  well  as  propelling  force.  There 
will  have  to  be  standards  here  and  they  will  have  to  be  upheld  even 
though  the  powerful  would  break  them  down.  We  dedicate  this 
building  to  open-mindedness  and  yet  to  exactness,  to  the  avoidance 
of  error,  to  the  correction  of  mistakes,  to  the  exposure  of  fraud. 
It  will  have  standards  and  it  will  adhere  to  them.  Its  mission  is 
to  favor  none  unless  he  is  disposed  to  be  right,  and  to  oppose 
none  unless  he  is  disposed  to  be  wrong.  It  will  regard  the  interest 
of  every  man,  but  it  will  not  forget  that  the  concerns  of  the  man 
are  more  dependent  upon  the  moral  health  of  the  mass  than  upon 
all  else;  and  it  will  stand  aloof  from  those  who  would  break  down 
the  standards  of  education  for  some  personal  end,  and  so  pollute 
the  streams  which  sustain  the  life  of  the  State  itself. 

We  are  honored  by  the  attendance  of  many  guests  eminent  in 
the  educational  work  of  other  states  and  other  lands.  It  has  been 
kind  of  them  to  come,  and  they  have  been  more  than  generous  in 
their  words  of  commendation.  Our  system  of  examinations  and  of 
registering  institutions  in  all  states  and  many  lands  may  lead  us 
into  the  bad  habit  of  assuming  too  much.  It  would  be  worse  for 
New  York  to  do  too  little  than  to  assume  too  much.  We  would 
do  neither.  We  know  that  she  is  a  strong  state,  bound  to  bear  a 
strong  hand  in  the  educational  as  in  all  the  work  of  the  country.  We 
hope  not  to  do  it  in  any  ungracious  way.  We  want  to  be  good 
citizens,  agreeable  neighbors,  in  the  democracy  of  learning.  There 
are  other  states  where  the  common  educational  opinion  is  freer 
than  it  is  here  because  their  laws  and  institutions  and  constitu- 
tions responded  to  riper  early  situations  than  ours  did.  There  are 
other  states  where  the  ordinary  sentiment  stands  for  wider  oppor- 
tunities for  the  highest  learning  more  than  it  does  here.  We  have 
no  unusual  ground  for  boasting;  we  would  not  seem  boastful.  On 
the  other  hand,  no  other  state  is  confronted  by  the  educational 
difficulties  presented  by  our  complex,  and  steadily  becoming  more 
complex,  population  of  ten  millions  of  people.     New  York  has 


266 


reason  enough  to  spend  her  energy  and  her  money  to  train  both  the 
old  stock  and  the  new  stock  that  steadily  pours  across  her  northern 
border  and  rushes  in  at  her  southern  gateway.  We  interlace  with 
the  educational  world  as  perhaps  no  other  state  does.  We  dedicate 
this  building  to  common  sympathies  and  to  mutual  helpfulness ;  we 
want  help  and  as  the  only  way  to  get  is  by  giving  in  education  we 
offer  such  largeness  of  undertaking  and  such  measure  of  leadership 
as  our  situation,  our  resources,  and  our  necessities  thrust  upon  us. 

This  building  is  rooted  deep  in  our  illustrious  educational  history. 
We  dedicate  it  reverently  to  the  memory  of  our  pioneers.  The 
people  who  have  erected  it  are  struggling  for  all  manner  of  progress 
in  the  most  tense  and  complex  civilization  the  world  has  ever  known. 
We  dedicate  it  bravely  and  courageously  to  the  needs  of  the  throb- 
bing present.  It  will  have  a  work  to  do  in  the  long  future.  We 
dedicate  it  solemnly  to  the  needs  of  the  generations  yet  unborn. 
With  all  our  rich  experience,  with  all  the  records  of  our  past,  educa- 
tion is  yet  in  its  infancy.  It  was  only  yesterday  that  higher  education 
was  for  but  the  few,  and  those  few,  men;  it  was  only  yesterday 
that  there  was  not  a  free  public  high  school  in  America;  it  is 
only  today  that  we  have  begun  to  fit  our  lower  schools  to  the 
real  needs  of  boys  and  girls.  And  so  we  dedicate  these  halls  to 
that  which  is  to  come  after  us. 

We  consecrate  this  splendid  pile  of  stone  and  steel  to  the  enrich- 
ment of  the  great  soul  of  the  Empire  State.  We  set  apart  this 
ground  and  this  beautiful  building  to  the  good  service  of  free  educa- 
tion, and  we  dedicate  ourselves,  our  children  and  their  children  to  its 
generous  support  and  to  its  unselfish,  unpartisan,  enlightened  and 
patriotic  use  for  the  true  greatness  of  the  State  and  the  highest 
good  of  all  her  people. 


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